– the rest of the world says, of course you do, what’s new?

The ‘I don’t care if they like us, as long as they’re afraid of us’, meme was a popular one a while back - maybe they should have cared.

A senior British commander in southern Afghanistan said in recent weeks that he had asked that American Special Forces leave his area of operations because the high level of civilian casualties they had caused was making it difficult to win over local people.

Other British officers here in Helmand Province, speaking on condition of anonymity, criticized American Special Forces for causing most of the civilian deaths and injuries in their area. They also expressed concerns that the Americans’ extensive use of air power was turning the people against the foreign presence as British forces were trying to solidify recent gains against the Taliban.

Difficult? There’s a diplomatic way of putting it ‘eh? Just how does one make any gains with the local people when their men, women, and children are being turned into pieces of red stuff on the streets?

An American military spokesman denied that the request for American forces to leave was ever made, either formally or otherwise, or that they had caused most of the casualties.

Of course they do, and they’ve been denying things like this since day one. But every denial of civilian death debunked by the fact that innocent men, women, and children, were killed, or maimed, or turned into cripples, orphans, or widows, further erodes the credibility of the United States military, and the administration that directs them.

Note to the United States of America - nobody f@#king believes you any more folks. You blew it, and it’s going to take a really long time before the rest of the world believes anything that your government, or your military, says about pretty much anything.