U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates landed in Kabul earlier today on an unannounced two-day visit to meet with Afghan president Hamid Karzai, top U.S. and NATO commander Gen. David Petraeus, and other leaders (NYT, AP, Reuters, WSJ). Gates said that both the Afghan and U.S. governments believe the U.S. military should be involved in Afghanistan after 2014.
Gates's visit comes as Karzai rejected Petraeus's rare personal apology over the deaths of nine Afghan civilians in a NATO airstrike in Kunar last week, calling it "not enough" and asserting that civilian casualties are "the main cause of a worsening relationship between Afghanistan and the U.S." (WSJ, NYT, AFP, CNN, Reuters, AJE, Pajhwok, McClatchy). Some 500 protesters in Kabul demonstrated against civilian casualties on Sunday, burning an effigy of U.S. president Barack Obama and chanting "Death to America." Read the rest at Foreign Policy
Monday, March 07, 2011
Gates in Afghanistan Apologizing for Civilian Deaths
As Robert Gates arrives in Afghanistan to apologize for killing nine children amidst chants of "death to America," John Kerry, John McCain and others are talking about leveling Libyan airfields and instating a no-fly zone. The Obama administration appears to be exercising restraint, which in my mind, is the best thing the U.S. can do. The U.S. can't be the mastermind of change in the the Arab world. Only the people there can make change and they've proven they can do it themselves. Any action the U.S. takes should be taken in coordination with other nations.
