This seems really, really important. Candace Rondeaux and Javed Hamdard of the Washington Post’s Foreign Service report that U.S. military officials have once again stated that five civilians– and 30-35 Taliban insurgents– died in a Aug. 22 U.S. airstrike in western Afghanistan. Yet the Afghanistan government and the United Nations still contend that not five but 90 civilians died in the airstrike. The Post interviews a local shopkeeper who claims 13 members of his family were lost in the raid.

While the airstrike has still not made front-page headlines, its changed the dynamic in Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai is now demanding a code of conduct for the U.S. military. Yet instead of negotiating with Karzai, the U.S. military is declaring he’s 85 deaths off-base in his assessment of the airstrike’s collateral damage.

Last night at the Republican National Convention neither Fred Thompson nor Joseph Lieberman once mentioned Afghanistan. It’s becoming increasingly clear, though, that Afghanistan will define the first year of the next president as much, if not more, than Iraq.-MB

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