MEDIA ROOTS — Early last Sunday, an unhinged U.S. Army Sergeant walked more than a mile, from village to village in rural Afghanistan, broke down the doors of three homes, and methodically murdered at least 16 Afghani civilians—nine of them being children.
The U.S. Department of State issued an uncharacteristic apology, given how a formal apology was never issued, nor actions taken, to hold accountable the soldiers from the “Collateral Murder” video nor Iraqi Wedding Party massacre for their war crimes, to name a couple of examples.
When asked by a reporter if the Afghanistan massacre was comparable to the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, Obama stated: “It appeared you had a lone gunman who acted on his own. In no way is this representative of the enormous sacrifices that our men and women have made in Afghanistan.”
The fact that the Obama Administration would be so quick to demean the actions of one soldier and not condemn the other aforementioned detestable acts illustrates the fine line between what our leadership deems morally reprehensible versus what is simply dismissed as expected collateral damage when following the ‘rules of engagement.’
Other political players try to spin a more commonly heard epithet. U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta responded to the recent tragedy by saying, “War is hell. These kinds of events and incidents are going to take place, they’ve taken place in any war. They’re terrible events. This is not the first of those events, and it probably won’t be the last.” Panetta also didn’t hesitate to say that the death penalty could be used against the soldier who committed these atrocities.
Pushing the mentality that “war is hell” is a common way to dismiss endemic military acts, which government officials downplay as isolated events in a chaotic war time environment instead of addressing them in the larger framework of what war does to the psychology of human beings. Unlike WWII and the U.S. invasion and occupation of Vietnam, U.S. military aggression against Iraq and Afghanistan are not ‘wars‘ in the conventional sense; they are militarized occupations of sovereign nations with mostly little to no army and barely any means to defend themselves.
Written by Abby and Robbie Martin
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REUTERS — Sunday’s shootings triggered angry calls from Afghans for an immediate American exit. Obama said there should not be a “rush to the exits” for U.S. forces who have been fighting in Afghanistan since 2001 and that the drawdown must be carried out in a responsible way.
The accused U.S. Army staff sergeant walked off his base in the southern province of Kandahar in the middle of night and gunned down at least 16 villagers, mostly women and children.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the death penalty could be sought in the U.S. military justice system against the soldier, whose name has not been publicly disclosed.
Referring to Sunday’s massacre, Obama said in an interview with KDKA, a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh: “It makes me more determined to make sure we’re getting our troops home.”
Photo by Flickr user Sdasm Archives
