When our crooks act less crooked

One could be tempted to get on Karzai's case about his criticism of NATO forces -- and America in particular -- but the man has a point:

After initially denying involvement or any cover-up in the deaths of three Afghan women during a badly bungled American Special Operations assault in February, the American-led military command in Kabul admitted late on Sunday that its forces had, in fact, killed the women during the nighttime raid...

“There was evidence of tampering at the scene, walls being washed, bullets dug out of holes in the wall,” the NATO official said, adding that investigators “couldn’t find bullets from the wounds in the body.”

The investigators, the official said, “alluded to the fact that bullets were missing but did not discuss anything specific to that. Nothing pointed conclusively to the fact that our guys were the ones who tampered with the scene.”

At least they admitted it after several weeks, compared to Tillman's death, and the bombing a several wedding parties that's some progress.

Since World War II the military tactical advantage of the US has been its use of overwhelming firepower -- but that is also our biggest weakness when it comes to hearts and mind campaigns. You are not going to be able to shoot and bomb your way into winning over a population as a foreigner. Yeah, the Taliban are pricks, but at least to the Afghan population, they are their pricks.