Deja Vu

We've heard it so many times before.

As everyone knows by now, a 38-year-old staff sergeant in the Army went on a rampage the other night, breaking into the homes of villagers in Kandahar province and methodically killing 16 civilians, 3 women, 4 men and 9 children. Afterwards, he piled up some of the bodies and tried to burn them. Here's a report.

The alleged murderer was on his fourth tour in the Middle East, having previously been sent to Iraq three times. Ironically, his mission was to train Afghan troops in order to bring “stability” to the region. Here's some background on the perpetrator.

The Afghans want him to be tried in their courts and executed. We all know that will not happen. The accused will be brought back to the U. S. and tried in a military court. In all likelihood, he will be found guilty but mentally ill, and will waste the rest of his life away in an institution. As a consolation prize, the families—if there any of them left—will get “compensation."  I believe the free market value of an Afghan life is $1500.

Predictably, the corporate media are treating the event as more of a public relations disaster than a human tragedy. A New York Times headline read, “Civilian deaths imperil support for Afghan war.” And USA Today: “Killings threaten Afghan mission.” We're told that there will be an anti-American backlash, but as previously noted in this blog, it's hard to believe that support for the American occupation could have been any lower before this latest incident. But not to worry. Pentagon spokesman George Little said yesterday, “Despite what some people are saying out there, we are absolutely not changing our fundamental strategy in Afghanistan.” So there.

President Obama expressed his regrets, but this time he did not apologize. I guess he took too much of a tongue-lashing from the Elephant candidates when he apologized for the burning of the Korans. The President went on to say: “This incident is tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan.”

But wait a minute. I don't know about people's “character,” but this is not an isolated event. American soldiers have gone on killing sprees before, sometimes cutting off fingers and other body parts as trophies. Civilians have been targeted by helicopter gunships and drone attacks. Night raids, where U. S. and NATO forces break into homes and attack people as they sleep, have been going on for 11 years. There have been as many as 40 raids per night, with the overall average being 10 per night. You bomb a bunch of children gathering firewood here. You incinerate a wedding party there. Pretty soon all of that adds up to a really pissed off population.

As for our “respect” for the people of Afghanistan, don't these words automatically elicit the image of American Marines urinating on their dead bodies?

These incidents are just another example of what a prolonged war of occupation does to the occupying troops. As with Vietnam and Iraq, this war has become an atrocity-producing environment. We've been fighting in Afghanistan for 11 years. Since you can't tell who the Taliban are, soldiers begin to see the entire population as the enemy. Over time, this perception has become more and more accurate, for obvious reasons. In order to justify what they are doing to the Afghan people, it is helpful for soldiers to see them as less than human. The extreme cultural differences between the occupiers and the occupied further encourages this racism. Do we have any right to be surprised by these atrocities?

President Obama has said that “all those responsible” will be brought to justice. If that's true, he might want to start by looking in the mirror. Then he might continue by arresting the people who sat or are sitting around the table in the war room at the White House. Biden and Clinton. Panetta and Petraeus. These people knew the consequences of their decisions. At the end of World War II, we insisted on holding commanders responsible for the actions of their troops.

I guess I'm expected to end a post like this by calling for a quick end to the occupation of Afghanistan. But we've said it so many times before.

Circle of Jerks

Let's start out by acknowledging the obvious.  When U. S. Marines urinated on the dead bodies of Afghan citizens, that was stupid. Really stupid.

The sight of pixilated penises brings back memories of Abu Ghraib. But I suspect this was a more spontaneous demonstration of contempt for the enemy. You'll recall that the Abu Ghraib atrocities were traced to explicit communications from commanding officers about how to interrogate prisoners, the paper trail eventually leading back to the White House. (For a thorough analysis of the situational forces influencing the Abu Ghraib defendants, I strongly recommend social psychologist Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect.)

Predictably, as soon as the golden shower video went viral, the Obama administration's propaganda machine went into full outrage mode. Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was “deeply disturbed” by the incident. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton expressed “total dismay.” Not to be outdone, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called it “utterly deplorable.” What hypocrites! Where's the outrage over more than ten years of U. S. occupation in which we have humiliated, terrorized, maimed and killed unknown but substantial numbers of Afghan civilians?

The administration also claimed the scandal would hurt our reputation with the Afghan people. But this claim assumes that, prior to the pissing contest, the Afghans had a high enough opinion of Americans to allow room for it to drop. Hasn't anyone at the White House heard of the floor effect?

Here's a promise to anyone reading this blog. If you happen someday to run across my dead body, you have my permission to pee on it as much as you want. I won't mind at all.

Let's hope the military isn't too hard on these guys.