FAM KIA

"Troops failed to check victims' identities: inquiry"

This was an article I read in the weekend edition of The Sydney Morning Herald. These are the parts that I found particularly intriguing. An Australian Defence Inquiry has found that Australian special forces failed to check the identities of their victims (before or after killing them), to see if they were Afghani insurgents or civilians.

Australian soliders killed three unarmed men in Southern Afghanistan amid concerns that the men were adopting firing positions when the soldiers raided the house of a known insurgent.

During the operation, the Australians had detained eight civilians from Oruzgan province. None of the detainees were allowed to assist with identifying the three victims.
The internal inquiry illustrated the need to quickly gain intelligence regarding the identity of FAM KIA.

FAM KIA is an acronym for "fighting age males killed in action". What is the male fighting age in Afghanistan?

The traditional warrior age of 15 to 29 years still remains in Afghanistan.
Australian, American, British soliders and others protecting the Western world against the Taliban are shooting kids still struggling to grow facial hair.

The Defence Department uses the acronym FAM KIA for the same reasons that the United States military uses the phrase "collateral damage". FAM KIA hides the fact that the coalition are essentially murdering children. Collateral damage (damage that is unintended or incidental to the orginal outcome) means humans, civilians killed in the way of military operations.

A seperate defence inquiry found that Australian forces were justifed in attacking a group of Afghans suspected of planting roadside bombs in late April. Graciously, the inquiry noted claims that the men killed were farmers doing night-time irrigation work.

The image at the top is fifteen year old Ali Aqa. He is not a child solider in Afghanistan. His village was burned to the ground by the Taliban. This is where it gets sticky... should we be stopping the Taliban from killing Aghans or should we be stopping Australians and Americans from killing Afghans?

http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/video/2009/jan/video.htm

The propaganda that is produced by both sides is equally hilarious.
But this particular video from the Australian Department of Defence is exceptional.
Private Pepi was struck by a round. That was in January. I don't know if he got back by spring, which was his intention. He wants to finish his job.

This guy, who doesn't look much older than 25, is lying in a hospital after being severely injured.
Maybe I just don't understand his love for his country or his passion for his job, but he looks more than relaxed to me about "finishing the job". Common sense dictates he would be on some kind of heavy pain killer after being shot a few times. I think it is more than insidious to film this solider under these circumstances and use it as an incentive and inspiration for other young Australians to join the Defence Force.

But of course this is just another example of how war works...

The title of the SMH article should have been "Australian troops kill three unarmed men". We need to wake up.