Within the Afghan compounds that are the physical targets of US night raids live extended family households that normally include not only the male head of family and his wife, but his brothers, sons and cousins and their families.
In Afghanistan, every adult Pashtun male has a weapon in his home, and is obliged by the ancient code of conduct called "Pashtunwali" to defend his home, his family and his friends against armed intruders. In a typical extended family compound, several males have weapons.
As a result, the non-targeted civilians killed in night raids have invariably been either close relatives or neighbors who come out to assist against an armed assault.
SOF commanders and the command and staff of the ISAF have essentially denied all civilian deaths in night raids, except for women and children, by counting all adult males killed in raids as insurgents. Full details.
If some one barges through my door in the middle of the night I would shoot to kill with out any hesitation.
ReplyDeleteIt is called self defense.
Precisely. We will never know how many innocent Afghans died at the hands of these boneheads doing just exactly that.
ReplyDelete