The Pentagon has partly explained the series of errors that led to an American attack on a charity hospital in Afghanistan last year that left 42 people dead. But the heavily redacted report still is not an acceptable finding, and the Defense Department has not held itself or those officers involved adequately accountable for failing to prevent this tragedy. With the United States ever-engaged in the fight against Taliban extremists, the Pentagon needs to do more to restore faith here and abroad in America's military mission.
The 3,000-page report paints a disturbing picture of laxity in the ranks, a headlong rush to attack despite confusion on the American side and a broken chain of command that delayed the cessation of firing. American forces dispatched an AC-130 gunship in October over the Afghan city of Kunduz in an effort to take out a Taliban compound. But the mission went off course from the start, thanks to a breakdown in communications and equipment that resulted in the deadly attack on a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders.
Missile fire from the ground forced the gunship miles away from its target, complicating its effort to locate the Taliban camp. The U.S. Special Forces spotter on the ground mistakenly identified the hospital as a Taliban compound. The air crew could not confirm the target because they took off too early to be fully briefed, and a database that identified the hospital as a protected site had not been uploaded to the plane's computers. A satellite radio aboard the AC-130 failed, knocking out the crew's ability to upload the database or to send and receive vital emails. The gunship's targeting systems wrongly directed the aircraft to an empty field, forcing crew members to calculate the target's location with their own eyes. And the air crew was confused by the directions from the American forces on the ground. Doctors Without Borders was able to reach American officials only minutes after the attack began, but it took at least 30 minutes before the firing was stopped. By that point, the low-flying gunship had fired more than 200 rounds of ammunition into the hospital.
Gen. Joseph L. Votel, the top officer at Central Command, said at a Pentagon news conference Friday that American military personnel "failed to comply with the rules of engagement in the law of armed conflict." Despite that serious charge, the 16 U.S. service members said to have been punished for their roles have not been identified. The Pentagon said the punishments will be "administrative actions" only, because those involved did not knowingly attack a hospital. Human rights groups criticized the findings, saying the inquiry should have been independent and faulting the U.S. military for not seeking tougher penalties under the military conduct code.
The errors in judgment that led to this tragedy at least call out for those responsible to be named, and for the Pentagon to clearly explain the discipline it meted out to each individual. It's also unacceptable that after more than a decade of war the United States still operates in such a threadbare fashion, with communication lapses that put civilians at risk. These mistakes, and the rather soft punishment that followed, undermine the U.S. mission.