Friday, August 17, 2007

AP fact check Obama that U.S. is killing Afghans faster than insurgents...turns out he's right.

"It is hard to imagine that anyone who aspires to be commander in chief would say such a thing about our brave men and women in uniform," Duncan said. "Obama owes our armed forces an apology — today.

"THE FACT CHECK:A check of the facts shows that Western forces have been killing civilians at a faster rate than the insurgents have been killing civilians.
Fact Check: Obama on Afghanistan - Yahoo! News

In Neocon land facts aren't important, jingoism and talking like a tough guy are important.


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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you serious?

Obama says "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there,"

And your response is to blame the neocons for jingoism? Do you believe the above statement? Do you think that our troops are "just air-raiding villiages and killing civilians" in Afghanistan?

His words and rhetoric are sloppy.

The Truth Handler said...

I think we are air-raiding villages and killing civilians. I think AP found that we are killing civilians faster than insurgents. I think that right-wingers who ask for an apology from Obama for stating those facts, rather than asking for one from the people who are CAUSING those facts to occur through poor management, administration, and policy, are so partisan that they've allowed politics to get in the way of their morality and sound judgment.

Anonymous said...

You are clearly wrong. The AP found no such thing. We are not "just" killing civilians. Yes, in the article you cited, "the AP count shows that while militants killed 231 civilians in attacks in 2007, Western forces killed 286."

That's a far cry from us "just" killing civilians, as there is no mention of the number of killed combatants.

You seem to be confusing collateral damage from US firepower with the deliberate targeting of civilians on behalf of the militants.

The Truth Handler said...

What did I say that is wrong?

Anonymous said...

You:

"I think we are air-raiding villages and killing civilians. I think AP found that we are killing civilians faster than insurgents."

The AP didn't find that. We are killing civilians faster than the insurgents are killing civilians. We are also killing a lot of insurgents, and neither you, nor the AP notes those numbers.

The Truth Handler said...

You said I was "clearly wrong." If you feel the story doesn't present enough evidence to convince you, that's fine, but I still don't see why I'm wrong. Your explanation above only suggests that the story is unclear, not "clearly wrong."