Some 25 Afghan civilians were killed Thursday in a NATO airstrike against Taliban forces, the latest in a string of civilian deaths that is seriously undermining Afghan support for the U.S.-led mission there.
As this commentary notes, such incidents are taking their toll. Since March, more than 135 Afghans have been killed and many others wounded or left homeless by Western combat operations, mainly under U.S. command.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the civilian deaths "difficult for us to accept or understand." Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey has advocated a goal of "zero innocent civilian casualties" in Afghanistan, even if that means letting some Taliban fighters escape when they hide among the civilian population.
At present, we’re handing the Taliban a propaganda and recruiting windfall.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Give city planners credit for pulling together the magnificent new Keeper of the Plains exhibit. But a reader raised a good question in a recent letter to the editor: Why is there no sign or plaque recognizing the statue’s creator, artist Blackbear Bosin?
It turns out the original plaque with Bosin information at the base of the Keeper was obscured when the statue was raised onto its new rock perch.
As my column today reports, city officials already realized their mistake in not having a new plaque. "A new one is in the works," lead project architect Kurt Skinner told me. One that will tell Bosin’s story and the Keeper’s.
Honoring Bosin and his vision will make the new Keeper site complete.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Even before Congress changed hands, a gap existed between it and President Bush on federal funding for new embryonic stem-cell research. His second veto of a bill to bolster such research brought talk of an override attempt or yet another legislative do-over. Bush’s executive order urging on those who do “ethically responsible” research won’t satisfy the many who see embryonic stem cells as the pluripotent key to curing major illnesses. Both sides are just working the process as they can. But does the repeatedly stated will of the legislative branch mean nothing to Bush?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Today is a key date in the local expanded gaming debate. That’s because the Kansas Lottery Commission has on its agenda today whether to certify Sumner County’s 2005 referendum vote supporting expanded gaming. The Kansas attorney general’s office already has issued an informal opinion that the vote complies with the requirements of the law.
If the commission accepts the vote, as expected, that means if Sedgwick County voters decide against expanded gaming, a large casino likely will be built in Sumner County. So the Sedgwick County vote on Aug. 7 won’t be about whether a casino and its social costs should come to the area. The question will be where the casino might be located — in Sedgwick County or to the south.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Defense Secretary Robert Gates offered some encouraging words Thursday on two important fronts: He said he doesn’t anticipate extending deployments of U.S. troops currently in Iraq beyond 15 months. And he said the military’s troubled mental health system “is something that we can, must and will get fixed.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
As of Thursday afternoon, the campaigning Sam Brownback had missed 12 more Senate votes this week, all on energy issues; that’s 79 of 224 total votes this year. But there is good news (for him, if not his constituents back home in Kansas): He’s tied with John McCain in the latest Mason-Dixon poll in Iowa (for fifth place with 6 percent, which says more about McCain’s fade than Brownback’s gain). The Des Moines Register reports that Brownback’s whirlwind tour of Iowa small towns this week has drawn some crowds of 30 to 50 people.
His schedule also meant he missed the Senate’s “Seersucker Thursday.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
