Colin Powell endorses Obama, Army kills 25 more civilians in Afghanistan

As overjoyed as I am by the fact that Colin Powell recently endorsed Barack Obama—going as far as to say that he would've done it 10 months ago if he based his vote solely on historical considerations—I am also confused as to why the NATO forces (read: U.S.) bombed and killed another 25 civilians in Helmland Province in Afghanistan. We are losing the war there, and it's rapidly devolving into chaos, according to just about all parties involved—including the U.S. military. One of the reasons the Taliban has such widespread support is because NATO forces keep icing civilians.

When are we going to learn? And this most recent catastrophe comes just after Gen. David McKiernan launched an initiative—a fatwah of sorts—about the absolute necessity of reducing, or better, eliminating, civilian casualties. Well how can you avoid civilian casualties when you're dropping bombs on civilian population centers? What civilian in their right mind would see the NATO forces as anything other than enemy forces? Who would not be terrified, and terribly resentful of the NATO occupation?

I would be interested more in hearing what Colin Powell has to say about Afghanistan than about Barack Obama. I've long since believed that Colin Powell was deeply dissatisfied with the role he played in the buildup to the Iraq invasion, though I have little to base that belief on other than the fact that apologized to the UN for presenting false evidence. I'm sure a Powell-designed occupation strategy in Iraq, as opposed to Rumsfeld's and Bremer's strategy, would've saved lives on both sides. But, at the end of the day, I still can't forgive Powell for not speaking out when it mattered most, as Gen. Eric Shinseki—former Chief of Staff of the Army—and many CIA analysts did. They lost their jobs as a result, but they kept their integrity intact. I can't say exactly the same for Powell, but his recent endorsement of Obama shows that he's definitely not one of "them"—that gang of insiders that drove our country straight off a cliff beginning in 2001.