The U.S. military is responsible for some startlingly stupid decisions.
An American airstrike hit a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz on Oct. 3, killing at least 12 medical staff members and 10 patients and injuring another 37. Backlash over the mistake was instantaneous, leading to President Barack Obama’s public apology to Dr. Joanne Liu, the president of Doctors Without Borders.
Unfortunately, the U.S. military has a history of being horrifically negligent numerous times in the past.
After the brunt of warfare with Taliban forces had subsided, American forces remained behind to assist the new Afghan government in clearing out the country of the remaining insurgents. However, that turned out to be much more difficult than expected and resulted in years and years of news stories about suicide bombings and shootings.
Naturally, the U.S. military was desperate to neutralize the leading members of terrorist groups and the Taliban. When the U.S. military received reports that a Taliban commander, Mullah Sidiq, was planning on hiding in Azizibad, an airstrike was ordered. The subsequent bombing killed more than 90 people, including numerous children. The U.S. justified its actions by claiming that Sidiq and many of his militants had perished.
Unfortunately for the U.S., Sidiq was spotted alive and well not long after, and an independent investigation concluded that the dead included practically no militants. No American was ever prosecuted for the Azizibad Airstrike.
Another good example of American military idiocy can be found in the 1943 attack on the island of Kiska in the Pacific Ocean. During World War II, the United States was busy managing troops on both the European and the Pacific fronts. To reduce casualties, the United States decided to start “island-hopping,” only attacking islands that provided the U.S. with strategic military advantages.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="7c739392-6dea-11e5-b8bb-b76abfc2b102"}}
The fiasco began when 500 Japanese soldiers took control of poorly-defended Kiska. The United States decided to show off with an overwhelming 35,000 soldier attack. Facing 35,000 angry Allied troops, the slaughter of Japanese soldiers was imminent.
The only problem was that there were no Japanese soldiers to slaughter.
When U.S. military intelligence sent spy planes to scope out the island before the attack, they noticed that the island seemed abandoned. Nevertheless, the U.S. military intelligence gave the green light to a massive operation that consisted of an extreme bombardment and a violent charge of soldiers shooting everything and anything that moved.
What would’ve been a rousing success became an ugly failure when it became apparent that the Japanese had abandoned the island two weeks earlier. In the end, exactly zero Japanese enemies were killed. On the other hand, 122 Americans died from shooting each other and getting lost in jungles.
But even worse than military ineptitude is the horrifically brutal treatment of civilians during the Vietnam War.
During the war, the Viet Cong utilized guerrilla warfare to bring the United States to its knees. The attacks were widely rampant and the U.S. was having trouble retaliating effectively. When an U.S. army company was given the order “search and destroy” on My Lai, the soldiers murdered more than 300 unarmed civilians, including the elderly and children. Exactly one soldier was punished for taking part in the My Lai Massacre. For participating in the systematic killings, he served three and a half years of house arrest.
The U.S. military belies itself when it utilizes mistake-laden strategies. With the Doctors Without Borders bombing, let’s hope that change will manifest itself in the coming years.
Richard Hwang is a student at Athens High School. What do you think of the U.S. military and its oversights? Email him at rhwang999@gmail.com.
