White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby responded to questions on Friday’s Fox News Channel broadcast about how the 2021 U.S. attack in Afghanistan, which killed an assistance worker, and the Jewish attack, which killed World Central Kitchen workers, were distinct by saying it was “imprudent to try to compare two things that happened three years apart in two distinct conflicts. And there was a thorough investigation into the Afghanistan strike, according to the independent investigator, who concluded that there was no need for private accountability, but that the U.S. military had to make some legal and systemic adjustments to how we viewed and acted on that intelligence.
Host Martha MacCallum asked, ]relevant trade begins around 3: 25 ]” When we left Afghanistan, we had a similar, tragic Hellfire missile strike that landed and killed ten persons, a man who was carrying water, bringing water as part of humanitarian assistance, and, at that point, when you were asked, what are we going to do about that, who’s responsible for that? This is what you said, John”.
She then played picture of Kirby saying,” Nothing of their suggestions dealt especially with issues of responsibilities. But, I do not assume that there will be problems of personal accountability related to the airstrike on August 29.
MacCallum therefore asked,” Therefore, there were seven children that were killed by that U. S. Hellfire missile, no accountability, you said, was part of the plan. But, why is this so different than what we did it”?
Kirby answered,” Well, look, these are events that happened three years apart, two different geographic locations, two different countries, two different sets of circumstances, two different types of threat ]s ] that were being evaluated, and]two completely ] different militaries that were involved, with two different chains of command. But, I think we’ve got to be careful matching both occurrences very carefully. We, too, had an independent analysis, Martha, of that event, and that independent inspector found that there was no need for personal responsibilities to be had, but did discover that the U. S. military needed to make some structural changes, legal changes in how we looked at intelligence and acted on that intelligence. The Israelis, similarly, have said the same thing about this event this week with the WCK strike, that they’re going to make some systemic changes. We’re excited to hear that, and we’ll be keeping an eye on their implementation to find out what those changes are. But these are two different events”.
MacCallum then cut in to say,” They’re not that different though, John. … This was a trigger moment, it appears, for the White House, because, obviously, the momentum has been building to take a harder line against Israel and their tactics, but this was the event that really pushed things over the edge. And so, why is it so different from what Israel carried out in the middle of war, and how these aid workers, as well as the seven children who were with this man underneath this Hellfire missile, are aware that they are in a war zone and that they are taking a great risk, at risk of their own safety?
Kirby responded,” Yeah, well, first, again, two different incidents. I understand that there]are ] similarities here. However, I believe it would be foolish to compare two events that occurred three years apart in two distinct conflicts. Despite this, Israelis have claimed that this is a mistake. We’re going to be looking at their report to see what we think of it after they reveal what happened, and we’re going to be watching their report as well. And they said that they’re going to improve. They need to improve the de- confliction processes with the aid workers, and that’s going to be important going forward”.
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