The message from Kunduz

For the first time in history, one Nobel Peace Prize winner (Barack Obama -2009) bombed another Nobel Peace Prize winner (Doctors without Borders -1999), when a hospital in Afghanistan run by the aid organization was hit by a U.S. airstrike on Oct. 3. Obama outdid Henry Kissinger in this respect, because by the time Kissinger was named the co-winner of the Peace Prize in 1973 with North Vietnam’s leader (who declined), the U.S. had already suspended its bombing of Vietnam.

After the Afghan hospital was hit and 22 people were killed, the U.S. military confirmed that it had conducted the strike and said that it had targeted individuals “who were threatening the force,” adding that “there may have been collateral damage to a nearby medical facility.”

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John F. Campbell, said that American troops had come under fire in the vicinity of the hospital and that the airstrike “was conducted against insurgents who were directly firing upon U.S. service members advising and assisting Afghan security forces.” Shortly thereafter, though, he changed his story and said that the attack was a mistake. The U.S. would never intentionally target a protected medical facility, he said.

Obama apologized to Doctors without Borders and said, “In the United States when we make mistakes, we’re honest about it. We own up to it.”

Which version of U.S. honesty do we believe, the initial one or the later one? I tend to believe the first one — that the attack was an intentional act taken against an identified enemy.

The significance of this, as I see it, is that Obama didn’t feel that he could defend his chosen policy once it was revealed. This is a major change and wasn’t something Kissinger ever had a problem with.