Really Sorry

From a short dispatch in the New York Times, appearing on April 5, 2010:

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"After initially denying involvement or any cover-up in the deaths of three Afghan women during a badly bungled American Special Operations assault in February, the American-led military command in Kabul admitted late on Sunday that its forces had, in fact, killed the women during the nighttime raid."

Of the three women killed, according to the Times, one was a pregnant mother of ten. A second was a pregnant mother of six. NATO officials had originally peddled the story that the victims had been stabbed to death by family members prior to the U.S. attack on the compound where they had gathered for some festive occasion. This turned out to be entirely bogus—in short, a lie.

Brigadier General Eric Tremblay, a NATO spokesman, manfully offered an apology on behalf of the alliance. “We deeply regret the outcome of this operation, accept responsibility for our actions that night, and know that this loss will be felt forever by the families.” Having read from what has become a set script, Tremblay presumably headed off to the gym for a workout or perhaps to the mess hall to enjoy some good army chow.

Would such a ritualistic expression of sorrow suffice had the incident snuffed out the lives of pregnant women in Tremblay’s native Canada? Not likely.

Who killed the women? How exactly did it happen? Who was in charge? Who has been held accountable and in what way? What actions have been taken to preclude any recurrence of such an event? Given the veil of secrecy behind which Special Operations Forces (SOF) operate, these questions don’t simply go unanswered. They don’t even get asked.

If love means never having to say you’re sorry, then serving in SOF means leaving it to others to say sorry while you play by whatever rules you happen to find expedient.

This is intolerable. Behavior that, at a minimum, involved the wrongful deaths of noncombatants combined with concealing the truth is both wrong and stupid. It makes a mockery of the claim, repeated up and down the chain of command, that the presence of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan is benign, with every action carefully calibrated to win the hearts and minds of the people.

Along with accepting responsibility for incidents such as this, NATO needs to fix responsibility. Doing so necessarily entails disciplinary action swiftly administered and publicly acknowledged.

Afghans no doubt view expressions of regret such as those offered by Brigadier General Tremblay as transparently insincere. They are right to do so. Were you an Afghan, you would feel the same.