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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blasted the
State Department Tuesday

Seven months old. Best shot?

Nah, a person can cut and paste the failings of the POTUS non-stop.:

U.S. Strike Mistakenly Kills Nine Children
By Jeremy Reynalds
Talon News
December 8, 2003

HUTALA, AFGHANISTAN (Talon News) -- Hats and shoes littered a
blood-stained field in a desolate Afghan village Sunday, a day after
U.S. warplanes targeting a terror suspect mistakenly killed nine
children.

The Associated Press (AP) reported that American officials offered
their regrets Sunday and said they were "deeply saddened" by the
deaths. While the Afghan government urged the U.S.-led coalition
hunting Taliban and al Qaeda fighters to make sure such an accident is
never repeated, the United Nations called for an investigation.

In Hutala on Sunday, a line of fresh graves marked the tragedy, and
village men stood by a stream in a dusty field where the children had
been playing.

"First they fire their rockets. Then they say it was a mistake... How
can we forgive them?" Haji Amir Mohammed told the AP, as American
soldiers sent to investigate the incident offered condolences.

According to the AP, villagers said the young victims had been playing
with marbles in a dusty field beside mud homes in the impoverished
valley, about 150 miles southwest of Kabul, when the A-10 ground
attack aircraft homed in.

Military officials said Sunday they had no idea children were in the
area when they launched the strike. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad
said the suspect targeted and killed was a former Taliban commander
named Mullah Wazir, telling the AP he was "deeply saddened" by the
"tragic loss of innocent life."

Khalilzad said the former Taliban commander "had bragged of his
personal involvement in attacks on innocent Afghan citizens,"
including aid groups and Afghans working on the Kabul-Kandahar road, a
site of frequent violence.

Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a spokesman for the coalition, told the AP in
Hutala that it had appeared to the pilot of the aircraft that "just
that person that we wanted, that terrorist, was in the field. So we
fired on him."

Troops discovered the children's bodies after rushing to the scene to
verify that they had got Wazir. U.S. officers flew in Sunday to
apologize to village elders, Hilferty told the AP.

However, village residents told the AP that the military had acted on
bad intelligence. Many said the man killed was not Wazir, and that the
former district commander under the Taliban had left the village some
days before the attack.

"There are no terrorists, no Taliban or al-Qaida here," said Abdul
Majid Farooqi. "Just poor people."

The AP reported that the 11,500 U.S.-led troops hunting Taliban and
al-Qaida remnants in south and east Afghanistan are often supported by
air power, and there have been a string of (alleged) military mishaps.

The worst incident occurred in July 2002, when Afghan officials said
48 civilians at a wedding party were killed and 117 wounded by a U.S.
Air Force AC-130 gunship in Uruzgan province, which borders Ghazni
province.

On April 9, a U.S. warplane mistakenly bombed a home in the eastern
town of Shkin, killing 11 civilians. Another air strike in Nuristan
province in eastern Afghanistan on Oct. 31 reportedly killed at least
eight civilians in a house, the AP said.

"This incident, which follows similar incidents, adds to a sense of
insecurity and fear in the country," the AP reported that Lakhdar
Brahimi, the U.N. Special Representative to Afghanistan, said in
Kabul.

The Afghan government said it fully supported fighting terrorism but
urged the U.S.-led coalition to "be very careful not to repeat such
tragedies."

Also Sunday, officials told the AP that two Turkish engineers and an
Afghan had been kidnapped along the road being build between the
capital, Kabul and the city of Kandahar, bringing to five the number
of workers abducted in Afghanistan in the last few days.

Taliban attacks have plagued the flagship road construction project.
Four workers were killed in August, and de-mining operations along the
road were suspended last month after a carjacking. A Turkish engineer
was abducted along the road Oct. 30 and released after one month.

The Taliban, whose hard-line Islamic regime was ousted from power in a
U.S.-led offensive in late 2001, have stepped up attacks in recent
months, targeting foreign aid workers and perceived allies of the
coalition.

International aid agencies have reduced operations in Afghanistan's
south and east due to escalating violence, the AP reported.

Tell me if you need more.


We went out to eat tonight at one of our favorite restaurants in Deale,
and I struck up a conversation with three folks in the bar. One
mentioned that he really was distressed by Bush, and it pained him,
because he was a conservative Republican, had always voted Republican,
but was going to vote for a Democrat next fall, unless Howard Dean won
the nomination.

Why is that, I asked?

Because Bush has single-handedly ruined our relationships with countries
all over the world and...and I just loved this coming from a Republican
conservative..."he seems to lie an awful lot."

Made my night. Even more than the extra two hours we spent at the
restaurant because we locked our keys inside the car. Don't ask.

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