U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan

> How exactly does the reporter know which people are IS fighters? Is there some notion that militants don’t ever also farm?

The article says it explicitly: the information is sourced from Afghan officials.

You could say that this may not be the most trustworthy source in this case, and I'd agree, but on the other hand, the problem of mounting civilian casualties of US drone strikes is already a decade if not more old, was widely reported on a few years ago, and is continuously being investigated by various organizations. If what Afghan officials are saying is true, it would not the least bit surprising - and that fact is a huge problem.

> Also in these comments there seems to be a huge double standard. The idea the United States might accidentally kill some civilians is somehow morally outrageous, but the regular and deliberate targeting of civilians by the Taliban and the IS as they attempt to completely destabilize the Afghan government is taken as somehow normal?

I think no one in their right mind would say that what the ISIS or other terrorist groups are doing is anything but repugnant. They're doing evil things, that's a baseline fact, so it's unmentioned - there's nothing interesting in pointing this out. What's more interesting is where did ISIS come from and why are they doing what they're doing, and a significant part of the answer to that question is American military excursions and regular, continued murder of civilians using remote-piloted drones. ISIS may be monsters, but the US is supposed to hold itself to higher standards, not step down to the same level.

Yeah, yeah. Beliefs gets mixed on, always. But do you seriously believe the Troubles in Ireland were over theological hair splitting about who is the head of the Holy Church? Yet, it was always framed, even in my school books, as a conflict between Catholics and Protestants. Very puzzling if it were only that.

I'm sorry but your explanation makes no sense. Oil is wherever it is located, so you have to go there if you want to take it or protect it. But you can grow poppies in most places. It makes no sense for the US to spend something like a trillion dollars and thousands of lives for something they could grow in California or Texas.

In fact we actually grow opium in Australia.

More news from the War on Pesto ...

Only the government has the right to produce pesto. You cannot store pesto in a bank safety deposit box (in fact, all safety deposit boxes will be banned). You cannot enter or leave the country with more than 10,000 paper promises of pesto. Anyone who buys, or sells, or consumes pesto will be tracked, and suspicious patterns will be assigned to their Social Pesto Score.

The rule of Civil Pesto Forfeiture: the police assume anyone in possession of pesto is engaging in criminal activity. The pesto will be confiscated without any charge, and the onus will be on the pesto owner to litigate to prove that the pesto was obtained legally.

Food banks will charge a fee for dispensing or receiving pesto. Storage of pesto at a food bank will require a negative interest fee.

Futures trading in precious metals for pesto does not need any store of physical metals. Any trade in precious metals for pesto is legally regulated by the Federal Government, but those laws will not actually be enforced.

Pesto lost in boating accidents will be assumed to be still in the owners possession for tax purposes.

The government reserves the right to create as much pesto as necessary for the culinary welfare of the nation. The government decrees that the supply of pesto shall be 2% more than is normally consumed. The excess of pesto will result in too much pesto being included for normal baking transactions, and the value of pesto stored under the mattress will decline.

The production and use of crypto-pesto will be studied by the government in a slightly perplexed manner. For the moment, they do not understand why anyone would want to buy crypto-pesto that cannot be eaten with physical pasta.

All transactions on the condimentchain will be monitored by the government. Eventually they will ban crypto-pesto, because they still don't understand it, but they suspect it threatens their monopoly on printing pesto promises.