Well, War Party, how do you like your democracy now?
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghanistan's parliament has approved a motion calling for the government to prosecute the U.S. soldiers responsible for a deadly road crash that sparked the worst riots in Kabul in years, officials said Wednesday.Hey, a parliament is nothing if not democratic, so I assume we'll have no problem with our legionaries standing trial in the Afghan system, whatever that might be. What, aren't we trying to nourish the tender crop of democracy in that thin, dry soil?
The assembly passed the nonbinding motion Tuesday, after debating Monday's crash in which a U.S. truck plowed into a line of cars, killing up to five Afghans and sparking citywide, anti-foreigner riots, said Saleh Mohammed Saljuqi, an assistant to the parliamentary speaker.
"Those responsible for the accident on Monday should be handed over to Afghan legal authorities," Saljuqi cited the motion as saying.
Bush is looking a little more like Brezhnev every day, I think. Must be those excellent Afghan adventures.
2 comments:
Well, the resolution is non-binding for a reason. Didn't Afghanistan sign a pre-invasion consent form that exempts American/coalition soldiers from prosecution by Afghan authorities? I believe a similar pre-invasion consent form was signed for Iraq too. And the "consent" persists despite the re-establishment of the countries' "sovereignty" (hey, no laughing) and of course includes the usual wear-and-tear exclusions for damages.
All the paperwork is filed along with those "Of course we'll leave if asked" statements by US officials.
Ah, Grace, I'm sorry -- I know you said "no laughing," but I can't help it. In case I haven't mentioned it lately, you have an excellent way with words.
"All the paperwork" could, I suppose, have been filed, without making the slightest difference. It's the same problem shared by all political paper, constitutions included: ultimately, all that matters is who's on the cheerful end of the gun, and who isn't.
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