Dead innocents in Afghanistan--more stupid evil

U.S. blames Taliban for Afghan civilian deaths:

A joint U.S.-Afghan investigation confirmed that an unspecified number of civilians died in a southern Afghan battle local officials say killed dozens of villagers, but the initial findings released Saturday appeared to blame Taliban militants who used locals as human shields.

Fuck off. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? The Taliban are to blame for endangering the villagers. Meanwhile the air strike is to blame for actually killing the villagers. See how this works? This is not hard.

And another thing. If this were a case of a clear conflict between morality and narrow self-interest, there would at least be some sort of sense to made of it. But(as with so many of the evils in the world today) boneheaded actions like this are obviously counter to narrow self-interest, just plain counterproductive. The long-term strategic interests of American forces demand that the locals think of them as the good guys, i.e., that they not slaughter civilians. Self-interest and morality coincide entirely. But it doesn't help.