up to 142 people, many of them civilians. it was their area of operations in the north of afghanistan. the political repercussions are still being felt in berlin today. this cockpit video was taken from two f-15s abo the site last september. the voices of the pilots have been removed, yet one of them has revealed yet more damaging details to nato investigators. known only by the nickname, "dude 15," he told them -- "i had an uneasy feeling about everything." both of us could tell the ground commander was really pushing to go kinetic. the bombing took place after the taliban hijacked two tanker trks full of fuel. they got stuck trying to cross the kunduz river. civilians soon gathered on the sand bank to help themselves to the gasoline. the pilots repeatedly suggested they fly low overhead to frighten them away.

but this answer came back from the german commanders on the ground. negative, i want you to strike directly. but the german commanders had withheld vital information from the american f-15 pilots, which had they known might have led them to refuse to drop their deadly payload. a classified nato report into the incident said that the german army knew by the time of the bombing one of the drivers of the hijacked tankers was still alive and at the scene. but many more civilians were actually at the site. they came from the village of oamahile. when al jazeera returned there this week, we saw these full of orphans and despair. my brothers also went there. we heard the bombs. i lost them. the taliban took our tractor and forced us to go with them. i lost my brother, three uncles, and two of my cousins.

a new tactical directive issued shortly before the attack gave the so-called joint terminal attract controllers who direct the aircraft to the position new rules to limit civilian casualties. the directive was clearly ignored by the german commanders. this leaked assessment signed by the commander of u.s. forces in afghanistan, general stanley mcchrystal was sent to the defense secretary robert gates on august 30, just four days before the attack. the general writes -- we run the risk of strategic defeat by pursuing tactical wins that cause civilian casualties or unnecessary political damage. the insurgents cannot sdefeat u militarily, but we can defeat ourselves.

late in the document he says, "a revised tactical directive was issued to all troops in theater on the 1 of july, 2009 which clearly described how and when lethal force should be used. after his trip to saudi arabia, president karzai is attending a security conference in germany. the latest revelations could add to the shock to the country already feels about the civilian casualties caused by what their chancellor still describes as a humanitarian mission. david schaffer, al jazeera, kabul. unfortunately for iraqis, it's an occurrence that's become all too c shiias images in an effort to ignite sectarian violence. today, it happened yet again. two car bombs tore through a crowd of shiite pilgrims headed to the holy city of karbala. the attack happened in village heights with tens of thousands of worshippers on the street.

at least 40 people were killed in more than 150 were wounded. it was the third such bombing this week. turning to a store about strife to one about peace. in an agreement that's being hailed as a breakthrough, british and irish leaders have announced they have reached a deal that would allow northern ireland, catholiand protestant sanctions to take over security in the region by early april. the pact is considered essential to securing the peace in northern ireland following 0 years of sectarian strife known as the troubles. time now for our weekly round table. in looking back over the past week, there was one subject in particular that grabbed our attention -- the increasingly rocky relationship between the united states and china. in one short week, a series of issues came between the

two-countries, an american arm sales deal to taiwan, a proposed white house visit for the dalai lama, and a disagreement over trade. to talk about all of this, we're joined by two world focus regulars, david andleman, editor of the world policy journal, and ann bremer, the president of eurasia group. welcome back to the round table. good to see both of you again. so we've had these recent -- numerous insight -- recent barbed, hark exchanges. what's behind the administration's toughest stance towards china? and also why is china being increasingly vocal in criticizing the united states on all of these issues all at once, david? >> it has been a process. no question about that. china and the united states kind of jockeying in a sense although not positioned that way, is who's going to be the next great superpower. and, you know, each one has its own agenda.

often they're conflicting agendas. in this case, in this week, they have a confluence, which i suspect is somewhat coincidental they all came together in one week. but nevertheless, each one is a subject that each country has important stands that differ dramatically to the other. >> do you see the ground shifting here? has there been a change -- a shift in the administration's position towards china. there was a recent statement quote in the press by one of the high-ranking white house officials saying that the united states is bent towards a new relationship with a rising china? >> interestingly, i don't think there was a change yet in the administration's policy towards china. but i think one is coming. where there have been a change, two changes. first of all, the chinese behavior towards the united states, they killed the

copenhagen agreement by themselves, refused to allow, for example, any discussion of emissions standards, even voluntary from the states and showed a lot of symbolic disdain diplomatically toward the united states you would not see from china. we've seen assertiveness from china on currency, trade, cybersecurity, google, on taiwan, dalai lama. we knew about taiwan and the dalai lama that we knew about for months. that's the first thing. the second thing is the united states is going to politicize this relationship from the bottom up. the fact is that you have 10% unemployment in this country. you have 10% growth in china. those two things do not play well together. so there's a consequence the obama administration is going to be forced to take a tougher line. simply because you're going to hear from congress, you're going to hear it from labor in the united states. >> right. david, do you think there is anything different today than there was, say, for example, a year ago, or even two years ago in terms of the u.s.'s position towards china? >> i think there's certainly a difference in the relationship

between the two-countries between today and a year or two years ago. china was buying tremendous quantities, now holds tremendous quantitian debt. that's vital importance to understand. the other thing that's happening now is that america is trying desperately to come out of the recession it's in right now. and some of that will be trade, inevitably. and what obama said in the state of the union address which i thought was very interesting and not really well picked up was the idea of doubling america's exports. well, that's got to be a degree -- probably a large degree at the expense of china. china hato be sensitive to that. that also plays in to the entire equation. >> you were at davos at the world economic forum recently, wathere any resolve the economic relationship and strains in terms of making progress towards the currency issue trying to resolve that anytime soon?

>> the chinese officials i spoke to were very clear. they said stable chinese currency is good when the dollar is weak, it's good when the dollar is strong. they're going to continue with that. there's no question that the largest chinese delegation we've seen in davos is just a few people. we're not going to have a lot of meeting time at davos that didn't happen. so i think what we do see in china. david's very much right about this. they do not believe that the american model going forward is going to support them for lots of reasons. and as a consequence, they know they have to get themselves away from an export-driven economy. they are completely consistent on this. they're going to move very, very fast. 36%, 37% of the chinese economy is consumption. everybody said they want to move that to 50% within five years. that means the united states becomes less indispensable for china. >> the chinese market is vital importance to him and will continue to grow.

>> if china revalued its currency, would it help the u.s. economy? >> anything would help presumably. and i've heard reports that they could revalue by 5% or so this year. that will certainly help. that will move in the right direction. but that would not be the only motive for china to do that. and not really driven right now by any sense of how this would play in the united states or with the united states. there's much more worried about their own domestic and international agenda of which the united states is only one component. >> some of the west called china's increasing assertiveness triumphalism. is that a strong word? >> i think the chinese do want to have a good relationship with the united states, actually. i think they want to have a green economy. i think there are a lot of things that the chinese would like to have. it's not their top priority. the top priority is growth and political stability that is sustainable within the system. and the fact is that those priorities are increasingly

heading directly at speeding train u.s. national and economic security interests. these are becoming increasingly zero. some, the chinese economic model is one that's incompatible at many levels of with the united states economic model. you won't have access to free consumer markets, labor markets, capital markets it way multinationals have for the past decade. when the chinese no longer need american foreign dollars for investment, all they want is technology, which western corporations are increasingly loathe to give them because it gets ripped off. the fundamental basis of this relationship is no longer there. so you have american officials saying we need a new relationship, they're coming to terms with that. >> at the same time, they want respect. the chinese want respect. above all, they want respect from the largest power in the world other than china. that's what they're trying to -- they're almost begging for that sometimes and sometimes it gets a bit strident but i think respect is what they're seeking. >> thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having us.

lions and tigers and bears, oh my. that's what you might be left saying after you see our next story. no, this is not the land of oz -- but a place that's just about as surreal. welcome to the annual sapporo snow festival, one of japan's largest winter events. for seven days each february, the northern janese city is transformed to a true winter wonderland featuring block after block of sculptures in snow and ice. it has its own emerald city, in this case, a replica of one of europe's most famous cathedrals towering some eight stories high. and by the way, we checked the forecast for sopporo. the weather is perfect. they seem to think so. even more snow is on the way with the low of 6 degrees.

that's world focus for this week. don't forget, you can always join us on-line at our website at worldfocus.org. frommern here at the broadcast, i'm i'm daljit dhaliwal. see you here at the same time on monday. have a great weekend. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com major support is provided by rosl rosland p. walter. and dedicated to fiscal responsibility and addressing key economic challenge facing america's future. and additional funding is provided by the following supporters --