Yesterday Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, speaking in Kabul, offered “sincere condolences and personal regrets” for recent deaths of Afghan civilians as a result of U.S. air strikes. You may remember that on August 22 a U.S. airstrike killed “five to seven” civilians, according to the U.S. military. Or was it closer to 90? Gates isn’t saying that the U.S. was lying, but the fact that he went all the way to Kabul to apologize suggests to some of us that we were. Gee, why does this remind me of Vietnam?
