Democracy Now (1/6/10) - US-Led Forces Accused of Executing Schoolchildren in Afghanistan

[laststeamtrain]

US-Led Forces Accused of Executing Schoolchildren in Afghanistan

<snip>

JEROME STARKEY: Well, the Afghan investigators believe that an Americans unit—they’re not sure which one, possibly a company with —flew from Kabul to Narang district in Kunar province. They say—Assadullah Wafa, the former governor who led the investigation—they probably landed about two kilometers outside the village where these killings are alleged to have taken place and then walked on foot into the village.

They then say that when they got there—this is where the version of events vary. Some people say that the victims were killed in three separate buildings. Some say they were three separate rooms, all part of the same compound. What most of the people on the scene agree on, though, is that at least eight of them were schoolchildren enrolled in a local—in two schools, one—some in a local high school and some in a local primary school. One of the victims was apparently a local shepherd boy who was staying as a guest in the compound overnight. And the tenth victim was a farmer, a day laborer who was working on the nearby fields, who came out when he heard the shooting and was shot where he stood. ... http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/6/us_led_forces_accused_of_executing

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Starkey's article from Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6971638.ece

[truedelphi]

1. The troops that we are committing to war in Afghanistan are for the

Most part people who have already done not just one or two, but three and four and even five tours of duty.

They no longer give a shit about the lives of any but their own.

A long time ago, in Chicago, circa 1959, a forty something dad explained that to his nine year old.

She had run up to him at the train station exclaiming "Daddy! Daddy! You are my hero. The nuns say you American soldiers stopped the Nazis, and that they were all war criminals."

He looked very stern and was very silent. He was so sternly quiet that for a moment the young girl thought that he might hit her. (Something he had never done before in his life.)

Then in a very gentle voice he said, "How can anyone tell you kids such nonsense? The people in Germany had lost their nation to the thugs that often get to run things when there isn't a democracy. And the difference between the US soldiers and the German soldiers was that the German soldiers had been fighting in wars since 1937 - a long time spanning eight years. While we Americans had only been fighting in Germany for less than twelve months.

"The longer a war goes on, the more likely the soldiers will be barbaric. It is simply human nature." He paused for a moment. "And if this nation ever falls into the hands of such thugs, then the same thing will be true of our soldiers."

Then being a wise and gentle man, in the presence of a mere nine year old, he changed the subject to her playmates and her obsession with books about animals.