Drone Bombing Muslim Weddings: When you are really good at something

Technically this wasn't an actual wedding. It was merely an engagement party.

U.S. forces bombed and conducted airstrikes apparently targeting an engagement party in the northern city of Jarchi, Afghanistan Sept. 3, according to a Buzzfeed News report published Saturday.
... The bombing struck a congregation of family and friends who were celebrating the return of Ahmad Zai, a member of the Afghan National Police who had been away for four months while fighting against the Taliban, as well as his cousin's newly announced engagement.
It was at about 9 p.m. when the explosion occurred, as family members were "drinking tea in the garden, waiting for sweets to arrive," according to 20-year-old Mohammad-Agha, who was badly wounded in the event. "At 3 p.m. my son came home,” Shir-Agha Mohamed, Zai’s father, told Buzzfeed News. "By 9 p.m. he was dead."

Now to be fair, all the victims were guilty of being Muslim. More specifically, they were guilty of being in the proximity of our bombs when they exploded, and not being Americans.
Which means that this was just a minor mistake with no one to blame.

But it got me to thinking: how many weddings have we bombed?
This article from 2013 says at least eight weddings.

given the history of US war-making since December 2001 when the first party of Afghan wedding revelers was wiped out (only two women surviving), would have been: “A US drone…took out a likely target.”
After all, by the count of TomDispatch, this is at least the eighth wedding party reported wiped out, totally or in part, since the Afghan War began, and it extends the extermination of wedding celebrants from the air to a third country—six destroyed in Afghanistan, one in Iraq, and now the first in Yemen. And in all those years, reporters covering these “incidents” never seem to notice that similar events had occurred previously.

That sounds about right, except that when I kept looking it appears that eight may be a conservative estimate.

There have been numerous U.S. air attacks that have killed dozens since the Gulf War. These include two potential strikes in Syria just this month, the 2015 Kunduz Hospital strike in Afghanistan, and roughly a dozen errant wedding party strikes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen over the years.

So maybe a dozen...or so.
Who really knows? Does any American really care, since they weren't Americans?
There is only one kind of acceptable racism in the United States today - discrimination based on the color of one's passport.

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

ggersh's picture

doesn't stop racism, our government is passport blind

There is only one kind of acceptable racism in the United States today - discrimination based on the color of one's passport.

up
0 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

@ggersh
I think that if a terrorist blew up a wedding in the United States, there would be no end to the outrage - even if the wedding party was dark skinned.

Even mainstream liberals are passport racists. Just look at how many of them flat-out denied that our imperialist wars weren't racist...because Obama was president.

up
0 users have voted.
SnappleBC's picture

@gjohnsit

I think the wars are based on greed more than skin color. The Ukrainians weren't dark skinned (I think).

Just because there is a racial component to something doesn't mean it's the driving factor... correlation and causation and all that.

up
0 users have voted.

A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

@SnappleBC

Just because there is a racial component to something doesn't mean it's the driving factor... correlation and causation and all that.

I wasn't saying that the wars started because of racism.
But that's not a necessary condition to still qualify the wars as racist.

Traditionally, most wars end up being racist in some way.
WWII and Vietnam are good examples.
Demonization of the enemy along racial lines is standard for wars.
It would be unusual if these wars weren't racist.

up
0 users have voted.
SnappleBC's picture

@gjohnsit

(and readily admit we seem to debating angels on pinheads here)

I guess the question is, "What race are you talking about?" That race would have to be, "Anyone sitting on top of anything we want or thwarting any of our geopolitical goals."

That isn't a "race". That's "them".

up
0 users have voted.

A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

@SnappleBC
For me to be saying, "This is racist" and someone telling me "No it's not".

It's a reversal of positions.

up
0 users have voted.
SnappleBC's picture

@gjohnsit

In the end, neither of us is a precious snowflake and neither believes the other is actually racist or uncaring about racial issues. So we just get to explore two different viewpoints. Gosh, if this weren't a political site I'd be tempted to call it an "adult level conversation". Smile

I keep thinking about your point though and I have to wonder if it's even racist in the sense of "the disproportionate burden falls on colored people". I honestly don't know enough to answer that... not enough history and not enough of population statistics. My guess is that the US empire is pretty indiscriminate though with the exception of our close ties with Europe. I'd expect anywhere but Europe the body bags are distributed in patterns tightly aligned with "whatever we wanted that someone else had".

up
0 users have voted.

A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

detroitmechworks's picture

Thanks to the MSM, they don't have to. There's plenty of circuses with much higher body counts available at the touch of a button.

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

GreatLakeSailor's picture


Edited for format and attribution
source: https://notabugsplat.com/

up
0 users have voted.

Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.