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Bombing Accuracy is Lauded
Tuesday, July 23, 2002
By Thom Shanker
The New York Times

“Today the Taliban are no longer in power; al-Qaida is on the run. The humanitarian crisis has been averted, and the Afghan people have been liberated. And Afghanistan is once again a free nation.”

WASHINGTON -- NYT
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan might have been the most accurate ever undertaken, resulting in fewer deaths of innocent civilians than any air war in history.

“It's an unfortunate fact of war that, inevitably, innocent civilians are killed,” Rumsfeld said. “This has been true, true throughout the history of warfare, and it remains true even in this age of advanced technology and precision-guided munitions.” Speaking at a Pentagon news briefing, he added: “We can take some comfort in the knowledge that this war has seen fewer tragic losses of civilian life than perhaps any war in modern history. We can also take pride in the fact that coalition forces have gone to extraordinary lengths not only to avoid civilian deaths but to save civilian lives.”

Rumsfeld spoke one day after The New York Times published a long report detailing on-site reviews of 11 locations in Afghanistan where airstrikes killed as many as 400 civilians. The reviews suggested that U.S. commanders had sometimes relied on incorrect information from local Afghans. Also, the Americans' preference for airstrikes instead of riskier ground operations has cut off a way of checking the accuracy of the intelligence.
(More: Worcester Telegram & Gazette News Source)
2002 © The New York Times Company.

Dan