Karzai demands Obama end civilian deaths

Karzai demands Obama end civilian deaths
By Noor Khan and Jason Straziuso - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Nov 5, 2008 18:33:18 EST

WECH BAGHTU, Afghanistan — The Afghan president congratulated Barack Obama and called on him Wednesday to halt civilian casualties as villagers said U.S. warplanes bombed a wedding party, killing 37 people — most of them children.

President Hamid Karzai said airstrikes cannot win the fight against terrorism.

“Our demand is that there will be no civilian casualties in Afghanistan. We cannot win the fight against terrorism with airstrikes,” Karzai said. “This is my first demand of the new president of the United States — to put an end to civilian casualties.”

Karzai spoke about the deaths at a news conference held to congratulate Obama on his election victory.

Obama has talked about the issue of civilian deaths in the past. In remarks in August that drew criticism from Republicans, he said: “We’ve got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we’re not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_afghanstrike_casualties_110508/%2e

and will result only in more needless deaths and continued war crimes committed in our name and with our tax dollars.

We need to work with Afghanistan diplomatically, not militarily.

The military is not a cure-all, and in general exacerbates the situation.

continuing pall of death. Obama will save lives. :dem;