Fears of Blowback Nixed Afghan Air Strikes in 2004

By Gareth Porter

"The present U.S. policy in Afghanistan of using air strikes to target local Taliban leaders was rejected by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan in early 2004 as certain to turn the broader population against the U.S. presence.......

After Barno left Afghanistan in 2005, air strikes aimed at killing local Taliban or al-Qaeda leaders resumed, and air strikes have come to be used routinely in military encounters with Taliban troops. The same tactic has also been used to target local al-Qaeda leaders in northwest Pakistan.

U.S. planes flew just 86 bombing missions in Afghanistan in all of 2004, but in 2007, the number of such air strikes had risen to nearly 3,000, according to U.S. Air Forces Central Command figures.

The exponential rise in bombing continued in 2008. In the two months of June and July 2008 alone, the United States dropped nearly 600,000 pounds of bombs in Afghanistan – roughly equivalent to the total tonnage dropped in all of 2006 – according to statistics collected by Marc Gerlasco of Human Rights Watch....."