White House Under Fire for Aid Strike Double Standard

Apr 6, 2024 10:27 am | News, Ticker, Virtual Jerusalem

Following the debacle in which the Pentagon press secretary hemmed and hawwed when confront with the apparent double standard in treatment of mistaken killings of aid workers between the US in Afghanistan and Israel in Gaza, the White House is doubling down.

On Friday’s Fox News “The Story,” White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby was asked how the 2021 U.S. strike in Afghanistan that killed an aid worker differed from the Israeli strike that killed World Central Kitchen workers. He retorted that it’s “imprudent to try to compare two things that happened three years apart in two different conflicts.”

And there was an independent investigation of the Afghanistan strike, “and that independent investigator found that there was no need for personal accountability to be had, but did find that the U.S. military needed to make some systemic changes, procedural changes in how we looked at intelligence and acted on that intelligence.”

Host Martha MacCallum asked, [relevant exchange begins around 3:25] “When we left Afghanistan, we had a similar, tragic Hellfire missile attack that landed and killed ten people, a man who was carrying water, bringing water as part of humanitarian aid, and, at that point, when you were asked, what are we going to do about that, who’s accountable for that? This is what you said, John.”

MacCallum then asked, “So, there were seven children that were killed by that U.S. Hellfire missile, no accountability, you said, was part of the plan. So, why is this so different than what we did there?”

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 that were being evaluated, and different militaries that were involved, with two different chains of command. So, I think we’ve got to be careful comparing both events too closely. We, too, had an independent investigation, Martha, of that incident, and that independent investigator found that there was no need for personal accountability to be had, but did find that the U.S. military needed to make some systemic changes, procedural 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. Now, we’re glad to hear that and we’re going to be watching to see what those changes are and how they can put them into effect. But these are two different events.”

MacCallum 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, in terms of what Israel carried out, in the midst of war — and these aid workers, and my heart breaks for them, as it does for the seven children who were with this man underneath this Hellfire missile — but the aid workers know that they are in a war zone and that they are taking a tremendous risk, at risk of their own safety.”

Kirby answered: “Yeah, well, first, again, two different incidents. I understand that there [are] similarities here. But it would be, I think, imprudent to try to compare two things that happened three years apart in two different conflicts. That said, the Israelis have said that they made a mistake here. They have come clean about what happened, and we’re going to be looking at their report to see what we think of it 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.”

The previous day Kirby was unable to get his messaging about “unwavering” support for Israel:

0 Comments

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. White House Under Fire for Aid Strike Double Standard | Israel NOWlej - […] post White House Under Fire for Aid Strike Double Standard appeared first on Virtual Jerusalem. | Read More in…