Death Squad': Full horror emerges of how rogue U.S. brigade murdered and mutilated innocent Afghan c

[go west young man]

Source: The Daily Mail UK

Rolling Stone reveals how U.S. troops murdered Afghan civilians
Soldiers cut off 15-year-old boy's finger and kept it as trophy
Video captures U.S. troops cheering as airstrike kills two Afghan civilians
New pictures show dead Afghan man's head on a stick
Soldier stabbed the body of a dead Afghan civilian
Military tried to pull pictures out of circulation to avoid another Abu Ghraib
Army says photos are 'in striking contrast' to its standards and values

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370758/Shocking-video-shows-U-S-troops-cheering-airstrike-blows-Afghan-civilians.html#ixzz1HzoHyNRD

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370758/Shocking-video-shows-U-S-troops-cheering-airstrike-blows-Afghan-civilians.html

---

Only Rolling Stone magazine has the guts to publish this stuff in the U.S.
It goes to show how far we have fallen at this point.

Additional link to The Guardian UK article on the same subject. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/29/us-army-photos-dead-afghans

[Deep13]

1. Einsatzgruppen.

Horrible beyond words, but entirely predictable.

[atreides1]

6. One difference

These were regular army troops doing it because they wanted to.

[KansDem]

20. You don't suppose this has anything to do with it?

The U.S. Army lowers recruitment standards … again.

[bertman]

33. Not really, KansDem. This is just a manifestation of the mentality of killing

The Enemy that has to be instilled in the troops in every war. Some units are better disciplined by their commanders, who have moral standards or just follow the rules, so they don't experience this type of thing (very often). Other units are the 'elite' units that take the most risks, usually suffer the greatest casualties, and often become the hard-core killers like the ones we see here. Those troops and their nco's and officers are usually the most efficient killers with a predatory mindset that makes them the natural choice for such units. Kills and trophies become part of the currency of machismo. Sick but true.

[go west young man]

42. Stryker brigades were only recently brought to Afghanistan

during the "surge" of 2009 that Obama ordered. Strykers are essentially light armored tanks similar to the British Scorpion.
The stryker troops haven't been there long enough to become hardcore killers. These guys were doing it because they were
bored according to the article. Judging from all U.S. military videos I've seen in recent years there is a military wide mindset
that killing is "cool". It could be the good Samaritans in the Apache video from Iraq. Or the tossing of a dog into a ravine.
It could be Abu Gharib. It could be the two guys on the motorcycle in the Rolling Stone article. Or the Rolling Stone night video.
There is a common thread. Some soldier is constantly saying " Fuck em up", someone is laughing, someone appears to be
enjoying it immensely, someone high up the chain of command says it's not systematic, some high up tries to cover up all evidence,
someone high up reluctantly finally prosecutes the offenders once the info is on public display, someone usually gets off
with a light sentence.

This is all an abomination. A systematic mentality that is royally, pardon my expression, "fucked". These troops were actually
stationed at a base called Camp Ramrod! What does that say about us as a force for good? Are we gonna win hearts and minds with
bases named as such. This gungho flag waving greatest nation on earth bullshit has done us no good. At this point Osama Bin Laden
(should he actually exist) appears to be a bloody genius who is winning round 2. He's dragged the giant into the Afghan trap and
it's our own vanity, recklessness, and stupidity that is defeating us.

[pasto76]

57. "judging from all the videos Ive seen..."?! WHATEVER

heres a newsflash, you cant speculate on the reasons, the writer of this article can barely speculate. Until you've been in those shoes, just cannot comprehend.

I say that because as a "peacetime" soldier, I THOUGHT I was educated enough to intellectualize what war was going to be like.

My WARTIME soldier just laughs at that dude now.

Yes, this is the polar opposite of my Army values. I hope these mutherfuckers burn.

[go west young man]

59. I call bs my friend.

As a former marine myself I can speculate. I've seen how my fellow troops have acted.
My speculation is backed up by plenty of now disclosed video. Imagine what hasn't been
released? Can we speculate that the military shows us everything? I think not. We have
to go by what we're lucky enough to see. That's why people like myself do speculate.

Are all soldiers bad I think not. Do we have a problem with an overzealous happy to kill mindset
in the military? I think yes.

[go west young man]

65. I would also refer you to Seymore Hersch's opinion on the same matter.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/03/the-kill-team-photographs.html

He ask's "why are these soldiers all smiling?"

[Canuckistanian]

52. As Bill Maher once said

"They've already picked the low-hanging Lynndie England fruit"

[Rex]

66. This is no different than the soldiers that torched buildings in Vietnam

and wore ears around their necks. Continual warfare causes the human brain to stop functioning in certain ways imo.

[malaise]

72. No I think the brainwashing and anti-Muslim propaganda

and the killing for Jebus may have way more to do with it than anything else.

[liberation]

27. I am sure to the victims and their families that makes like all the difference in the world

and stuff...

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[Old and In the Way]

3. Is it possible that, after 10 years of fighting mindless wars for the economic interests of

Big Oil and the MIC, that our troops are becoming cynical and immune to the horrors of war? Sure looks like it. Maybe the political powers that be are afraid to bring these people home and deal with the consequences of this war sickness.

[BeHereNow]

19. I'm sure that has crossed the minds of tptb.

I for one, don't relish the thought of these people
returning to the US to walk freely among us.

They are broke beyond fixing and are just as likely
to completely disregard all life here on our streets.

BHN

[sad sally]

58. Don't mean to take offense, but "these people" fighting these

forever wars are our brothers and sisters - our friends and families. Spend two, three, maybe four or five tours of duty in a war zone and see if you don't end up a little bit broken. Yeah, they volunteered, but most didn't think they'd be at war forever.

Just like so many things America does - we use them up, spit them out, and hope they don't end up homeless, out of work, with PTSD on my street or in my town. Some veterans can't even talk to someone that hasn't been where they've been or seen what they've seen. War is hell...

[BeHereNow]

62. Sorry- I can't call people who murder children my "brothers and sisters."

They are an aberration of nature.

I have family that served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
They did not kill, maim or torture anyone.

BHN

[sad sally]

63. Agreed, most soldiers don't torture, but killing,

is what combat soldiers are trained to do, and in a combat situation that's what they do - they don't necessarily like it, but when you're being shot at you shoot back. Maiming during wartime is also a hazard hard to avoid at times.

I'm glad to know your family didn't have to engage in killing anyone - some of our family members weren't able to avoid it, and we still love and support them. Personally, I hate war; it's a useless waste, but my hate doesn't stop them from happening.

peace

[BeHereNow]

76. Hello? It was not a "combat situation."

It was a hunt and kill an innocent child situation.
Can I have some of what you are smoking?
I would love to live in your state of denial about this atrocity.
BHN

[sad sally]

77. Sorry, I don't smoke, and this IS an atrocity - and, although slow to

act, we're told the military has brought or is bringing the criminals to justice. Whether anyone other than enlisted personnel will be held responsible is another matter.

If my defense of combat troops (and veterans) and the potential horrors resulting from what they are trained to do - kill - wasn't appropriate to this post, my sincere apologies to you. I was not, nor am excusing war crimes.

[axollot]

32. With the vet cuts - the thought has crossed my mind. Worse is the

militarization of known gang members coming back. Trained.

:cry:
Cheers
Sandy

[Hubert Flottz]

4. I tought general Miller had retired?

[dipsydoodle]

5. From The Mail ink

"Army says photos are 'in striking contrast' to its standards and values"

Presumably that means they expected more of this than has come to light to date.

[go west young man]

8. The Guardian Uk article mentions that Rolling Stone is in possession of 150 photos.

They only published 17. Der Spiegel had previously published 3 with victims faces blurred out.
Rolling Stone isn't holding back which is admirable.
The rest of the U.S. mainstream media has gone to shit.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Stanley McChrystal and President Hamid Karzai briefed on the photos as early as last May.

So they have known for a long time, looks like.

wonder what % of the soldiers in the M.E. are this sociopathic?

[Alameda]

49. Yet another Sarah Palin tie in... From the Rolling Stone....

"Morlock was the kind of bad-news kid who the Army might have passed on. He grew up not far from Sarah Palin in Wasilla, Alaska; his sister hung out with Bristol, and Morlock played hockey against Track. Back in those days, it seemed like he was constantly in trouble: getting drunk and into fights, driving without a license, leaving the scene of a serious car accident."

[indepat]

9. When a nation gears itself to perpetual pre-emptive wars, forever training a ruthless and amoral

warrior class to inflict magnificent kill-ratios on third-world peoples using highly sophisticated weaponry financed by borrowing from other nations, things sometimes get out of control and go awry. :patriot:

[IScreamSundays]

10. WARNING EXTREMELY GRAPHIC

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/the-kill-team-photos-20110327

[BeHereNow]

16. These photos are akin to the images from the Vietnam War.

They have the power to wake the American people from their
apathy.

Too bad no MSmedia will touch them.
Kudos to Rolling Stone for putting these images
in the public eye.

BHN

[Marcel]

11. Yikes!

"New pictures show dead Afghan man's head on a stick".
It seems like Colonel Kurtz is alive and have moved to a new place. :puke:

[jwirr]

12. I wonder if rogue here means right wing religious shit holes? That

is not even a human action against ones enemies - only religious bigotry or something like white supremacy ideas can produce this kind of hatred.

[BeHereNow]

18. One of the perps had a sister who was friends with Bristol Palin.

Any more questions about where he came from and
the environment that shaped his brutality?


BHN

[jwirr]

24. Thank you.

[jwirr]

26. I do not excuse them but I was working with some artifacts from WWII

and found a knife made from the hipbone of an enemy soldier by one of ours - this is not really a new thing and I suspect hate was alive and doing well back then also.

[liberation]

30. Exactly

War is humans at their worst. It is an incredible level of naivette or pure denial those who thinks that there are good wars and bad wars. We are sending our kids over there to kill people, and we feign horror and disgust when we are pointed out, and have to face, that indeed those kids are doing exactly what we sent them there to begin with: to kill people.

I also love the excuses of this just being the work of a "few bad apples." Thus implying than our other kids are good since they can concentrate on "killing the right people" instead. Amazing the level of justification some people can produce in order to rationalize the fact that we're sending people to kill in our name, and how easily we can remove ourselves from that fact.

[Cid_B]

47. I heard it was his father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate...

:eyes:

[BeHereNow]

13. From the Rolling Stone Gallery- Picture #9 (Perp: Sister a friend of Bristol Palin)

"Before the military found itself short of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, Morlock was the kind of bad-news kid who the Army might have passed on. He grew up not far from Sarah Palin in Wasilla, Alaska; his sister hung out with Bristol, and Morlock played hockey against Track. Back in those days, it seemed like he was constantly in trouble: getting drunk and into fights, driving without a license, leaving the scene of a serious car accident.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/the-kill-team-photos-20110327/0854086

This what happens when sociopaths are allowed to enlist.
This guy had quite a record.

BHN

[Bragi]

14. Never should have ended the draft

Totally in retrospect, the U.S never should have ended the draft.

A military comprised of citizen soldiers is far more attuned to democratic and public values than is a military dominated by careerist mercenaries.

[liberation]

28. ... yeah because Vietnam was such a clean and democratic war

[whathehell]

51. How many wars are "clean and democratic"?

At least Viet Nam was "democratic" in that virtually

everyone was vulnerable to being drafted and so had

a vested interest, perhaps, in STOPPING it.

The "unpopularity" of Vietnam and it's MANY

"mass uprisings" (demonstrations) was what

MADE them stop the draft, IMO...They knew middle class

kids with their "broader array of choices"

would be up in arms (along with their families) if they tried to draft them.

[sibelian]

53. uhhh....

Yeah...

[chillspike]

15. "...kept their body parts as trophies"

This makes me sick beyond measure that these scumbags represent this country at all. That's what Custer's men did to the Cheyenne. We haven't changed. I am determined to leave this country now. I'm done.

Pieces of living garbage.

[democrank]

17. Sickening beyond words.

We need to take a long, cold look at ourselves.

[irislake]

21. Time for Americans

to stop idealizing the troops. I suggest valorizing firemen and teachers instead.

[crim son]

22. How dare you say that?!!

:sarcasm:

[themadstork]

71. Yeah.

I feel for what they were forced into, but I'm not ever going to praise trained killers as heroes. My heroes are those that find it in them not to kill.

[earcandle]

23. Human degradation and the willingness to prop up a war/crime party as legitimate.

Will we continue to let the military degrade us? Can we stand
any longer to fund a political party that is criminal? How do
we throw out the criminal party known as the republicans
rooted in war theater economies and crime economies and win
back our dignity and honor? Or do we keep publishing this shit
irresponsibly in ways that demonstrate our powerlessness to
stop crime, and human degradation? 

[Shining Jack]

31. Huh?

So out of sight out of mind, it never happened? :puke:

[avebury]

25. I hate to think of how these guys will

behave when they return home. I would be worried that they would be a serious threat to the public.

[BeHereNow]

34. That has been a matter of concern for the majority here.

There have been SO many atrocities committed by our soldiers, reported by
alternative news, never mentioned by the MSM-

David Hackworth was sitting on a trove of whistle blower
documents before his death.

I have often wondered what happened to that material.

Seymour Hersh is another reporter who knows many of the untold
obscenities enacted by our soldiers against civilians.

It's not just a few "bad apples" as they would have us
believe.

It is a pathological brutality that has gone viral
through out the military.

You have every right to be concerned about these soldiers
returning to our streets.

BHN

[drokhole]

29. Glad Obama wouldn't sit idly by for an impending massacre in Libya...

...so we could be the ones who continued to do the massacring.

[teabaghater]

36. Troops-

I have never felt sorry for our "troops" no matter how mutilated they come back. They asked for it. The thought of killing thrilled them. Patriotism? Bullshit. Americans are violent people and always have been. The sense of entitlement and disdain for others is in our mental make-up. Look at the history of this miserable republic, from the native americans and all other early adventures in imperialism the US has performed the same way. The only time the US was honorable in a war was WW2.
I served in the military during the viet-era. No I never went there, thank god. Drafted and never left the states. This kind of behavior is instilled in personnel to dehumanize the enemy. But we take to it so well! Evangelicals with god on their side. Bullshit.

[Cid_B]

54. We love you too...

:patriot:

[VoteProgressive]

43. Wow, you do not get it do you......

OUR TROOPS are the bad guys in this story. So you want more of them engaged with the citizens of Libya! WTF.

[drokhole]

46. Sorry, should've added a "sarcasm" tag...

...I'm on board with you. I was trying to point out the hypocrisy between Obama's rationale for Libya, and the atrocities of our actions that continue to be revealed (just imagine what we haven't seen!). Me = internet fail.

[Hosnon]

35. A 15 year old boy displayed like a kill from a hunt?

How awful. I don't even know how to react to this.

[KansDem]

37. I have a 13-year-old son

Seeing what these murderous, sadistic thugs did is beyond belief and humanity.

As a parent, I don't know how I'd react but if I did it wouldn't be pretty...

[yurbud]

38. This reminds me of Bob Kerrey's unit in Vietnam, how we dealt with Filipino rebels and the

Sand Creek Massacre of Native Americans.


It looks like SOP for dealing with uppity natives for at least 150 years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/25/magazine/25KERREY.html?pagewanted=3&ei=5070&en=2cb5742962474fc2&ex=1163739600">Kerrey's massacre of Vietnamese women & children

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moro_Crater_massacre">Gen. Leonard Wood's massacre of Filipino's in Moro Crater

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Creek_massacre">Sand Creek Massacre of surrendered Native Americans


Those are just some of the more noticed cases, but the methods seem strikingly similar: kill women, children, and civilians in general to remove the base of support of the resistance and break their will to fight.

While it is a war crime in every case, it further proves that the War on Terror is a lie since this method will only increase terrorism.

[benld74]

39. Read this is RS yesterday-Could only get thru 3 pages,,,SICK

[Cherchez la Femme]

40. K & R

& tic to read later

[Blue_Tires]

41. I'm surprised the pentagon didn't go in full attack mode

in stopping the release of those photos...Remember all the hand-wringing over the torture pics a couple of years back?

[Raksha]

60. I'm pretty sure they did. I don't know the details,

but I'm pretty sure the Pentagon tried to stop the publication of these pictures right up to the minute Der Spiegel published first three on March 21st.

[VoteProgressive]

44. This needs to stay at the top of DU!! nt

[Catherina]

45. Rec'd with sadness and disgust n/t

[bvar22]

48. Sounds like the Afghans could use a good No Fly Zone,

with suppression of the aggressors ground movements and heavy equipment.

[Raksha]

50. Very sad K & R. I just posted the Daily Mail article on another forum.

I thought the RWWs there should know just why America is so hated around the world, especially in the Muslim world. Of course it will cause pain to the Vietnam vets who are also among the regulars there, but hopefully they will understand.

[L0oniX]

55. I am sure this is only a small part of what goes on NORMALLY.

...and these sociopaths are coming home to live among us too.

[Paradoxical]

56. War brings out the animal in human beings.

[defendandprotect]

61. Our military is going insane -- the most brutal and cruel military we've ever raised... according

to journalist Sy Hersh !!

[avaistheone1]

67. Given that torture has become the accepted course of action by the Pentagon, are we really surprised

when soldiers go berserk like this. I am not.

These atrocities are the ultimate culmination of the military leadership's acceptance and promotion of torture and endless wars. imo



k&r

[defendandprotect]

75. Agree ....

and they say that torture is really about controlling the population --

we see how this has been done in Gaddafi's Libya --

Whenever and wherevere the right wing are in control they are destroyers --

bringers of death!

[Blue_In_AK]

64. Jeremy Morlock has ties with the Palins.

I doubt they'll be terfiying as to his character at his sentencing. More weirdness from Wasilla.

[OneBlueSky]

68. spreading American values to all corners of the globe . . . n/t

[Enthusiast]

69. Our behavior in Afghanistan

and Iraq will keep us in terrorist anger for many years to come. Just imagine how many trillions of military dollars will be necessary to keep this anger in check. Mission accomplished.

[Mnemosyne]

70. Fucking monsters -

At one point, soldiers in 3rd Platoon talked about throwing candy out of a Stryker vehicle as they drove through a village and shooting the children who came running to pick up the sweets.


Poor little war criminal:

“We were operating in such bad places and not being able to do anything about it,” Morlock tells Rolling Stone. “I guess that’s why we started taking things into our own hands.”

[Godot51]

73. Atrocity

I in no way condone the acts now being reported and the acts that have already been reported since the beginning of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Indeed my heart is broken with the sorrows that must permeate the civilian populations of those conflicted countries.
And my anger against my own country makes me bow my head in shame.
Still, there is something in the midst of combat, in the time of war that changes humans into something inhuman. The very act of war creates this circumstance. I can no more explain this than I can explain how consciousness is connect to the body. It is beyond me.
And from what I have read over the years, it is beyond all human attempts to explain though many try.
Many try to explain it in psychological terms, in anthropological terms, in sociological terms.
Perhaps it all boils down to the primitive human, the animal human.
But it has always been and always will be the way of war. Some humans find pleasure in the degradation, suffering and death of others.
Because of the nature of war, those humans are allowed to let out their true characters, outside of civilization.
War and violence desensitize us in different ways. Some recoil, others trudge on and yet others thrive.
But none of this new.
None of this is only of today.
It was that way in Vietnam, it was that way when my father was in the Pacific and when my great-grandfathers fought on opposite sides during the Civil War.
Atrocity follows war the way the smell of decay follows death.
I sadly believe it is impossible for humans to avoid it, we seem to be growing worse instead of better.
The act of typing these words brings despair to my heart and soul.
The whimpering time is inevitable.

[Dokkie]

74. K&R

Sad part is that most of these maniacs are comin home to become policemen in our communities.