Time for one last bloody act as drone tragedy marks US exit from Afghanistan

Editorial: The Taliban and its allies hardly needed to generate anti-western propaganda when, not for the first time, innocent civilians are killed by a catastrophic mistake

(Dave Simonds)

A tragedy in itself, the US drone attack that killed 10 innocent civilians in Afghanistan – one of the last acts of this long engagement – was a powerful reminder of the kind of catastrophic mistakes that so characterised what was, after all, a UN-sanctioned intervention with a humanitarian dimension.

Sadly, it came as no surprise. It was a typically vengeful hi-tech attack, and hardly the first that went tragically wrong. Ten members of a single extended family wiped out, including six children, with the youngest two years old.

The Taliban and their allies hardly needed to generate anti-western propaganda in circumstances such as these, and they occurred too often. Hardly the leaving gift America once might have wished for its mission.