Doctors Without Sides
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
President Obama deserves better than the terse acknowledgement he received from Doctors Without Borders for his apology in respect of the bombing of what turned out to be a hospital at Kunduz, Afghanistan. Even in the fog of war it was a horrifying error, no doubt; something like two dozen persons, including a number of physicians, were killed when the facility was attacked by one of our AC-130 gunships. But there is no doubt the President’s regrets are heartfelt.
Yet Doctors Without Borders reacted with what the New York Times characterized as a “terse statement” saying the apology had been “received.” The Times reported that the organization’s international president, Dr. Joanne Liu, whom Mr. Obama had telephoned, repeated her demand for an “independent investigation led by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to ‘establish what happened in Kunduz, how it happened, and why it happened.’”
That’s a stretch. We’re in the middle of a war and we wouldn’t give access to so much as a gluon of classified information — or particulars of tactics, targeting, range, and rules of engagement — to the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Organization. Its Web site lists commission members from countries either neutral in or opposing us in this war. Its membership includes a Russian, someone from Abu Dhabi, and another from Algeria.
They are no doubt fine, even distinguished people — we’re not suggesting otherwise. But it would be illogical to expose our pilots and armed services personnel to an investigation by any entity that isn’t unambiguously on our side in this conflict. We’d be satisfied with the Pentagon itself, or the White House, or the Congress, or the Wall Street Journal editorial board. But blamed if we’d farm this investigation out to an organization of do-gooders who profess to be neutral.
One of the points that President Obama might have made when he issued his apology for this bombing is this: When the long history of the war that erupted on September 11, 2001, is written, it is not going to be America that — net, net, net — owes the apologies. It is going to be those countries that attacked us or from whose territories attacks were perpetrated. They’re the ones who deserve an investigation.
