Pentagon Evaluates Itself, Finds No Wrongdoing In Drone Strike That Murdered 10 Innocent Afghan Civilians, Including 7 Children

Oh wow. What a relief. Don’t worry guys. The Pentagon double checked and “independently” evaluated themselves, and officially concluded that they did nothing wrong. Yeah, sure, they killed 7 kids and several other innocent adults who were actually aid workers and American allies, but they, the ones who murdered them, aren’t at fault. They checked, you see, and found that they did nothing wrong.
And we can totally trust that they were entirely objective and incredibly thorough as they reviewed and evaluated whether they were culpable for any wrongdoing in an embarrassing and deadly international incident.
According to the AP,

An independent Pentagon review has concluded that the U.S. drone strike that killed innocent Kabul civilians and children in the final days of the Afghanistan war was not caused by misconduct or negligence, and it doesn’t recommend any disciplinary action.

Apparently, Air Force Lt. Gen. Sami Said, who conducted the review, “found there were breakdowns in communication and in the process of identifying and confirming the target of the bombing” and “concluded that the mistaken strike happened despite prudent measures to prevent civilian deaths.”

“I found that given the information they had and the analysis that they did — I understand they reached the wrong conclusion, but … was it reasonable to conclude what they concluded based on what they had? It was not unreasonable. It just turned out to be incorrect.”

Oh, really? They simply reached the wrong conclusion and murdered 7 children and 3 other innocent civilians? It just turned out to be incorrect? It just turned out that way? Really?
At a Pentagon briefing, Said told reporters,

“They all have a genuine belief based on the information they had and the interpretation, that that was a threat to U.S. forces, an imminent threat to U.S. forces. That’s a mistake. It’s a regrettable mistake. It’s an honest mistake. I understand the consequences, but it’s not criminal conduct, random conduct, negligence.”

Here’s that press briefing, with Said starting his report after a short introduction.

So where did this information come from? Who collected it? Who passed it on? Who vetted it? Or maybe who didn’t vet it? Who incorrectly interpreted it?
This just isn’t good enough. It’s really not.
The AP also stated,

The report, which has been endorsed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, made several recommendations that have been passed on to commanders at U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command. The review recommends that more be done to prevent what military officials call “confirmation bias” — the idea that troops making the strike decision were too quick to conclude that what they were seeing aligned with the intelligence and confirmed their conclusion to bomb what turned out to be the wrong car.
Specifically, the review said the military should have personnel present with a strike team, and their job should be to actively question such conclusions. The report says using a so-called “red-team” in such self-defense strikes that are being done quickly might help avoid errors.

It might also help if we had competent leadership who weren’t more focused on the radical woke progressive narrative than the safety and wellbeing of the nation and its citizens.
And maybe a President who knows what day it is and doesn’t need to take naps after every meeting.