America Kill teams in Afghanistan: the truth - Guardian/UK

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy.” - Gandhi

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/30/kill-team-photos-afghanistan-us

The disgusting and heartbreaking photos published last week in the German media, and more recently in Rolling Stone magazine, are finally bringing the grisly truth about the war in Afghanistan to a wider public. All the PR about this war being about democracy and human rights melts into thin air with the pictures of US soldiers posing with the dead and mutilated bodies of innocent Afghan civilians.

I must report that Afghans do not believe this to be a story of a few rogue soldiers. We believe that the brutal actions of these "kill teams" reveal the aggression and racism which is part and parcel of the entire military occupation. While these photos are new, the murder of innocents is not. Such crimes have sparked many protests in Afghanistan and have sharply raised anti-American sentiment among ordinary Afghans.

I am not surprised that the mainstream media in the US has been reluctant to publish these images of the soldiers who made sport out of murdering Afghans. General Petraeus, now in charge of the American-led occupation, is said to place great importance on the "information war" for public opinion – and there is a concerted effort to keep the reality of Afghanistan out of sight in the US.

The "kill team" images will come as a shock to many outside Afghanistan but not to us. We have seen countless incidents of American and Nato forces killing innocent people like birds. For instance, they recently killed nine children in Kunar Province who were collecting firewood. In February this year they killed 65 innocent villagers, most of them women and children. In this case, as in many others, Nato claimed that they had only killed insurgents, even though local authorities acknowledged that the victims were civilians. To prevent the facts coming out they even arrested two journalists from al-Jazeera who attempted to visit and report from the site of the massacre.

[amborin]

1. K&R

[Marblehead]

2. One day

these kill teams will be out of the military and back home, scary thought. Like Vietnam all over again.

[gratuitous]

3. This. Happens. Every. Single. Time.

It will happen in Libya, too. We send people out to kill and die for us, this happens. Every time. Without fail. It's as inevitable as water flowing downhill. That's why the decision to send in the troops should be near the bottom of the list of options, instead of being the first tool we grab. War and its attendant violence make for pretty pictures of faraway stuff blowing up real good, but it's expensive, time-consuming and extravagantly wasteful of lives, property, environments and nations. There's nothing remotely humanitarian about it. There's nothing life-affirming about it.

God, we love it so.

[sabrina 1]

4. Whatever happened to Osama Bin Laden?

There have been huge demonstrations against the drone killings of innocent people for years in Afghanistan. But we never see them here.

It is just sickening, hell on earth what has been done to the people of the countries we have invaded.

I fear for the people of Libya, our next foreign adventure together with the old Colonialists from Europe.