The left will most likely chalk this latest “mistake” in Afghanistan to, ‘Well, foreign conflicts can get messy sometimes.” Well, an excuse like that doesn’t explain unmitigated failures.
“Our investigation now concludes the strike was a tragic mistake.”
Those were the words of Chief of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), Gen. Frank McKenzie on Friday after the Pentagon concluded that no ISIS-K terrorists were killed in a drone strike in Kabul that claimed that lives of 10 civilians, including seven children.
The U.S. conducted a “targeted” drone strike on August 29 in Kabul that, at the time, CENTCOM claimed they knew “disrupted an imminent ISIS-K threat to the [Kabul] airport,” while also admitting that they didn’t know what exactly happened. That led to the investigation into the strike.
According to the USA Today, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told reporters on September 1 “that intelligence showed ISIS-K was preparing a vehicle for a suicide attack, criteria for launching an attack were met and that an explosion after the attack had led to the ‘reasonable conclusion’ that explosives were in the vehicle.”
Fox News Pentagon reporter Lucas Tomlinson tweeted on Friday that “no disciplinary action” is expected, and that the “US military stands by intel leading to strike.”
BREAKING: Gen. McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, to announce no ISIS-K fighters killed in U.S. drone strike in Kabul Aug 29. 10 civilians killed, including 7 children in Toyota. No disciplinary action expected, officials say. US military stands by intel leading to strike.
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) September 17, 2021
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the strike during a Senate Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Tuesday. Blinken sounded about as clueless as CENTCOM did in their initial statement on said strike.
“So you don’t know [who the target of the strike was] or won’t tells us?” Paul asked Blinken.
“I don’t. I don’t know, because we’re reviewing it,” Blinken replied.
That’s when Paul hit Blinken with a strike of a response of his own.
“You think you’d kind of know before you off somebody with a Predator drone whether he’s an aid worker or he’s ISIS-K,” Paul said.
Paul continued by insinuating that what we now know is true could lead to pushing some to terrorism for killing innocent people.
And the thing is there is blowback to that. I mean I don’t know if it’s true, but I see these pictures of these beautiful children that were killed in the attack. If that’s true, and not propaganda, if that’s true, guess what: Maybe you’re created hundreds or thousands of new potential terrorists from bombing the wrong people.
So you got to know. You can’t have an investigation after we kill people, we have an investigation before we kill people.
Well, it’s too late in this instance, isn’t it?