"Winning hearts & mind": now we're pissing off our NATO allies!

US-German rift emerges over Afghan deaths case
By JASON STRAZIUSO and FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press
6 Sep 2009
KABUL – An airstrike by U.S. fighter jets that appears to have killed Afghan civilians could turn into a major dispute for NATO allies Germany and the United States, as tensions began rising between them Sunday over Germany's role in ordering the attack.

The story is very convoluted.
German commanders apparently requested & authorized the air-strike:

... German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said the Taliban's possession of the two tankers "posed an acute threat to our soldiers." German officials have said the tankers might have been used as suicide bombs.

"If there were civilian casualties or injuries, of course we deeply regret that. At the same time, it was clear that our soldiers were in danger," Jung said in comments to German broadcasters. "Consequently, I stand clearly behind our commander's decision" to order the air strike.

Now U.S. & German officials are pointing fingers at each other for the carnage.

Again:
Air power is a very blunt instrument.
Air power cannot occupy territory or control populations.

IF we want to "succeed" in Afghanistan we need a HUGE occupation force - to occupy territory & control populations.
(Here I'm assuming a definition of "success" that I've nowhere seen articulated!)

Meanwhile...

President Hamid Karzai takes 100% of votes in opposition stronghold
From The Sunday Times
September 6, 2009
Jerome Starkey in Kabul and Jon Swain
In the southern Afghan district of Shorabak, the tribesmen gathered shortly before last month’s presidential election to discuss which candidate they would back. After a debate they chose to endorse Abdullah Abdullah, President Hamid Karzai’s leading opponent.

The tribal leaders prepared to deliver a landslide for Abdullah – but it never happened. They claim Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president’s brother and leader of the Kandahar provincial council, detained the local governor and closed all the district’s 46 polling sites on election day.

The ballot boxes were taken back to the district headquarters where, tribal leaders allege, they were stuffed with ballots by local policemen. A total of 23,900 ballots were finally sent off to Kabul, the capital – every one of them a vote for Karzai.

Ah, yes. Democracy at work!

Recall: this is NOT Iran. This is Afghanistan - our very poorly-controlled puppet state.

Tell me again why we're there???

Stop the madness!