Rethink Afghanistan...
...even if for no other reason than your tax dollars being spent by the bushel to murder innocent men, women, children and even (are you listening, Snowflake Baby Conservatives?) the unborn.
Greenwald is right. The escalating war in Afghanistan isn't making us one bit safer because we didn't need protection from the Taliban until we invaded and occupied it. And even after nearly a decade, even as we're inevitably sliding into the same exact quagmire that bogged down great armies from Alexander the Great to the Soviet Union, even after the US death toll had surpassed 1000 and Afghanistan became far deadlier than Iraq, Obama still doesn't see the neverending pattern of defeat and failure and recognizes that it is our turn.
Safer? Hardly. We're not making anything safer for either the native Afghanis or our own country. We're murdering men, women and children, then lying about it and covering it up until the facts can no longer be waved aside.
These are legally actionable war crimes, plain and simple, and bullshit platitudes about the "necessary" and "unavoidable" collateral damage being the cost of war land and shatter like the hollow vessels of propaganda that they are. They're hardly our first and they will absolutely not be our last. But if these war crimes will be repeated in a morally nauseating loop, the least we can expect is justice and not mere compensation and belated, coerced apologies for these people and for the American families who lose loved ones in Afghanistan nearly every day for a plainly losing and unnecessary cause.
These lying, murderous pieces of shit in both the regular military and the Special Forces need to be held accountable under the UCMJ, not to continue flying under the radar and remain well-hidden and covered by their craven commanders who haven't the courage to stand up to the truth in the light of day.
Your tax dollars are paying for this. Sign Brave New Films' petition to demand a UN investigation.
posted by jurassicpork @ Friday, April 23, 2010
5 comments
5 Comments:
I remember reading that intitially Special Forces in Afghanistan were quite successful in their approach in that they worked in small teams that built up trust with the locals and acted respectfully to their culture on the whole. When regular troops moved in they operated in ways that worked against what had been established...kicking in doors, treating everyone as a threat, and in the process alienating the population after so much effort had gone into creating a bond. Even then, the rotations and other deployment methods that failed to retain this desired continuity fell by the wayside and we are where we're at now.
Not saying that being true to the early tactics would save they day, just that it was abandoned pretty quickly sending the message that we could not be expected to keep our promises.
Lance:
I never had any such illusions, especially when I recalled that many of the soldiers currently in Afghanistan had also "kick(ed) in doors and treat(ed) everyone as a threat, and in the process alienat(ed) the population" of Iraq.
Why would anyone have a sunnier view of Afghanistan knowing what we do time after time when powerless brown people are involved?
Where's the Hugh Thompson, Jr. of today?
Good question.
Doesn't the question always revolve around first, is the war, conflict, or violence necessary and justified for national defense...and second, in what way can military force achieve the objectives.
I remember reading a Col. David Hackworth piece critiquing the strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan and about his confidence in winning a guerilla war as long as the proper tactics were used. I couldn't really imagine what those tactics would involve. If the hearts and minds of the population are not with the so-called liberating force, it is a wasted effort.
And if the conflict is not directly involved in national defense, it is illegal.
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