Another Dirty War, Another Massacre. posted by Richard Seymour

US Says Troops Fired At Crowd in Afghanistan Capital.

U.S. military officials acknowledged Wednesday that American troops had fired at an angry mob that surrounded the scene of a traffic accident in the Afghan capital Monday morning. Officials previously had said the troops fired only into the air.

In the fatal accident, the driver of a U.S. military cargo truck lost control and struck 12 vehicles in rush-hour traffic, killing one person and injuring six, the military said. The incident sparked violent, day-long riots that ended with 20 dead, 160 injured and dozens of buildings badly damaged.

President Bush spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday and pledged a full investigation, White House press secretary Tony Snow said in Washington, according to the Associated Press.

The incident has exposed deep public resentment against the presence of foreign troops here and shaken investor confidence in the fledgling postwar economy at a time when Afghanistan faces a mounting threat from armed Taliban fighters and other insurgents in the countryside.

They say they used their weapons in "self-defense". The story is that some gunfire emerged from within the crowd and the US fired on the crowd in self-defense. I have, I think, heard that somewhere before. Not one of the twenty dead or 160 injured was a US soldier, which also sounds familiar.

Anyway, "deep public resentment" can be ignored, but "investor confidence" counts and so some show of an investigation will be made. Bush will have to make another announcement which will end with a little smirk as it did last night. Incidentally, note that it is not the US occupiers, but "Afghanistan" which "faces a mounting threat from armed Taliban fighters and other insurgents". Who are these "other insurgents"? I had been led to believe that the only people who could possibly oppose the benign imperialist presence in Afghanistan were the eeeeeevvvvillll ones. Could it be these guys? Or is it some disaffected Northern Alliance folks?