Why is it always weddings that get bombed?

A wedding in Afghanistan reportedly ended in tragedy on Monday, when a missile fired by a U.S. aircraft slammed into the crowd, killing 40 civilians and wounding 28 others. When I saw the news, I wondered, why does the United States always seem to bomb weddings in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Part of the reason is that America’s enemies are lying about the effects of American air strikes. “During the air war leading up to Gulf War I, it was amazing how U.S. airstrikes seemed to systematically hit Iraqi schools and hospitals,” noted Wayne White, a former deputy director in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research for the Near East and South Asia, in an interview today. “[These claims] turned out to be, in most cases, Iraqi propaganda.”

But that does not minimize the very real limitations of air power, and the fact that many strikes do indeed hit civilians. As far as weddings are concerned, a crowd of revelers can be hard to distinguish from a gathering of insurgents from the bird’s-eye view of a spy drone. From afar, celebratory gunfire can also make a joyful wedding appear to be an angry mob. Air power’s trouble in delivering pinpoint strikes, combined with the time lag between receiving intelligence and bombing a target, also increases the likelihood of civilian casualties.

White knows the limitations of allegedly “smart” munitions. “An airstrike which generally uses a 500-pound bomb, even if it hits its target in many cases, there’s going to be collateral damage,” he notes.  Airstrikes were never meant to be used in an urban environment or in villages, he argues, because of their lack of precision.

However, there has been an increasing reliance in air power in Iraq and Afghanistan, in order to make up for a lack of troop strength and also out of concern for soldiers’ safety. In Afghanistan, air missions have risen 31 percent during the past year due to increased fighting and a lack of boots on the ground. Faced with the decision of killing a high-value target with a missile, which could also claim the lives of civilians in the area, and sending in ground troops, which could result in the death or injury of American soldiers, commanders are increasingly looking to air power. “It really comes down to the belief that they are more expendable than we are,” White says. “[Iraqis and Afghans] see this as something that indicates that they count less than we do.”

The lag time between receiving intelligence and launching a missile at a target also increases the risk of civilian casualties. Let’s say an intel unit intercepts a phone call from a known insurgent in which he reveals his location. A spy drone would then be vectored towards that area to pinpoint the target. Half an hour may pass from the moment the intelligence arrived to the time a bomber is in position. During that time, the insurgent may have left, and unrelated activity in the area — a wedding, for example — can be mistaken as the target.

Photo: FILE’; Joseph Giordono-Pool/Getty Images