Leaflet Drop Kills Afghan Girl, Military Searches For Safer Alternative

LONDON — Britain's Ministry of Defense has confirmed that a box of leaflets dropped from a British plane killed a girl in Afghanistan.

The ministry says the box failed to break apart before striking the ground in Helmand province on June 23. The ministry said Wednesday that the girl was fatally injured when the box hit her.

The ministry says the girl's death is a matter of "deep regret" and it is investigating the incident.

Comments

[Ventoi]

Tron would have hovered and shown the information on a blank wall...
from a projector.

The written word assumes we all can read, also.

[WilliamL]

How hard it it to open a damn box and drop paper instead of boxes with paper in it?

OPEN THE BOX FIRST

[The Ogre]

No wonder they hate us.

[WilliamL]

it has been awhile since laughing as I just did

[Y2KCockroach]

Any idea what was printed on the leaflets (eg. "we are your friends, you have nothing to fear from us, and we are here to help you")? Gawd only knows how many soccer balls we are going to have to hand out to fix this one. Just make sure they get handed out on the ground, and not dropped from the air....

[KIVPossum]

The ministry "DEEPLY REGRETS".

How many more civilians have to die before we give up on this useless war?

[janeycat]

what next ????

[MacKenzie]

"As God is my witness...­.I thought turkeys could fly."

-Mr. Carlson

[vwtx]

While this incident is sad, WKRP was my first thought also.

[sviolette]

Perfect post. Now that's funny.

[larry278]

Fhat the Wuck-in WW II-the US Army Air Corps could hit a designated piclkle in a pickle barrel. The Brits can hit a chosen child during a leaflet drop; isn't that progress?

[SKMojo]

Wow! That ought to go far in "winning the hearts and minds"!

[bobsan]

The glorious WEST never ceases to amaze me with the new ways it finds to kill the innocent

[Mosby12]

You are soo right.. .its the WEST's fault. America and Europe have done nothing but slaughtered innocents, enslaved people, imposed values and otherwise caused cultural genocide on the EAST ......unle­ss you consider

Mao
Pol Pot
Japanese Empire
Al Queda
Stalin
Rowanda
Uganda

[alysheba 3]

You forgot Israel. Oh, wait, that was the US and Europe, too.

Continue on!

[CptKendrick]

Awww, screw it! The whole human race is at fault!

People suk!

[Y2KCockroach]

Hey, "Mosby12", you do realize that the U.S. supported Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and it was the Vietnamese army that ousted them, and stopped their slaughter (that's right, the same Vietnamese who we killed in the millions, trying to stop Vietnamese self-rule)? And you do realize that Al Qaeda received much of its initial support, including funding from the House of Saud (that's right, the same medieval theocracy that we support unquestioningly)? And you do realize that "Rowanda" (sic) and Uganda were internal conflicts, that had nothing to do with imposing their leaders' values/beliefs beyond their borders? And you do realize that the "Japanese Empire" extended only to Japanese territory, save and except for a 35 year annexation of Korea (until WWII, when they "briefly" invaded all sorts of places, but those hardly became part of their "empire")? That leaves Mao and Stalin (and Wilson, and Churchill, and Mussolini, and Hitler). Couldn't you come up with better examples? Oh, that's right, in comparison to the West's hegemony, there aren't better examples..­.

[Sing Out and Slap Iron]

Are you truly that stu*pid?

[Tactical Grace]

"The medium is the message."

[realpolitic]

Man, we are even killing children by dropping boxes of leaflets from the sky! Imagine if this accident happened in London. All of Britain would be aghast and angry. The parents would win millions in a court settlement. But in Afghanistan it is just another day for villagers who are powerless and voiceless.

[Pavane]

I think, sadly, you are right.

[iiirockstar16iii]

Come on!!! this is just flat out sad!

[Sing Out and Slap Iron]

Why can't anyone else see that?

[Joethepauper]

When we first invaded Afghanistan, food packets were dropped. Those food packets were the same size, shape, and color as the cluster b0mblets we were also dropping. When the Afghans searched for the food packets, some of them were b0mblets. Oops! The packets that contained food had a high percentage of them broke when they hit the ground, and some of the food inside was perishable, making the Afghans who ate the spoiled food sick. The packets also contained silica gel packets to keep them fresh. Afghans, unfamiliar with American spices sprinkled their food with silica gel, causing illness, even though the food hadn't spoiled (the silica gel packets were marked in plain English "Silica gel: Do not eat"......­.I don't know why there would be any confusion! Oh, that's right.....­When you invade a foreign country, halfway around the world, there might be a language barrier)
The highly-paid engineer who came-up with the breakaway boxes should fly to Afghanistan, apologize to the family of the girl, and give them a year's salary. That's what would happen in a responsible and just world. I could engineer a way to drop pamphlets without killing anyone, and I'm not an engineer! Where's my "Defense" contract? Stop doing stupid s#!t and do something correctly! And why would Britain be dropping pamphlets so close to the election, anyway? Let them vote for whoever they want to vote for!

[doublels]

We're the gift that keeps on giving. How utterly sad & unecesary.