Lots more discussion of civilian casualties lately. There has been a push by NATO and the Afghan government to not only pull pack a little when civilians may be in the line of fire, but to get on the radio and television and tell the Afghans what we are doing. Like I said we are guests here, and our hosts don’t want us killing indiscriminately. Which we aren’t. Air power is getting a bad name here, but it is the nature of war that nothing ever goes perfectly. We don’t just have airplanes flying around looking for something to bomb. Every mission is directed in by someone on the ground who is receiving fire or by very good intel. Very rarely is the airplane the only weapon used. Unfortunately the enemy talks a lot but doesn’t back it up with action. Case in point was several women and children were killed in an attack on a compound. We had monitored the place for several hours before the decision was made, and didn’t see anyone. It turns out the Taliban kept them inside specifically because they knew if we saw them, we wouldn’t attack.

The information war is huge. The Taliban will pay locals to say that there were massive civilian casualties. So that gets reported as well as NATO and local Afghan government denials. One big problem is that the first story tends to get believed, so the western view of “we don’t know yet, we’ll have to research and get back to you” isn’t quick enough to combat what the enemy is saying. They may be living in the ninth century, but they are not idiots when it comes to influencing pubic opinion.

Of course its all relative, two South Koreans were killed for the sin of trying to nurse sick people and teach kids English and computers. We are seeing a lot South Koreans around here now. Good tough troops if needs be.

We had a small amount of excitement here last week. Someone found some old unexploded ordinance on the soccer field. Don’t know what it was. They made us all stay inside while EOD blew it up. The field is about 600 meters from our office, so I heard the boom. It doesn’t appear to have been a big deal, since everyone was back to playing soccer the next day.

Father Muretti is done coming here. I guess he was serious about wanting us over at the Italian embassy. Unless I can find a battle buddy I’ll probably stay here. I think a group may come together to say a rosary, which means I have a week to remember how to do that.

We had a meeting with some NGOs and UN people on how to support the rule of law here. Most Afghans use an informal tribal or religious system. The local Shura is the leadership, and do a credible job in sorting out disputes about land or water rights. It’s an Afghan solution for an Afghan problem and for the most part is what you want out of a legal system: its fair and consistent. However it’s not so great for a woman up for moral crimes. She needs to be able to say, to paraphrase St. Peter, “Civis Afghanum Sum” and be allowed to take her case to a government court where she would be treated as any other citizen.