Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The US Military Has Gone Evil

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/middleeast/06baghdad.html?scp=2&sq=video%20shows%20attack&st=cse

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/world/asia/05afghan.html?scp=1&sq=us%20admits%20killing%20afghan%20women&st=cse



On April 5, two absolutely horrific cases of US military abuse were showcased in the New York Times. First, the US military admitted killing pregnant Afghan women in a Special Operations raid, something it has denied for months. Who knows how or why the savage leaders of our weapon-heavy Empire get away with these disgusting deceits.

Lies, Lies, Lies!!!

And then it turns up that the US Special Forces “dug bullets out of the bodies of the [pregnant] women to hide the nature of their deaths,” according to a NATO report. This report was later denied by a “senior NATO official.”

Gee, who should we believe? The side that denied for months that the US was guilty and then finally admitted culpability? I think not!

We are on the verge of a major scandal here. The question is no longer whether the women were viciously killed by US soldiers, but whether there was a cover up.

Did US soldiers dig bullets out of the bodies to hide their crimes?

The London Times says YES:


And in what could be a scandalous turn to the investigation, The Times of London reported Sunday night that Afghan investigators also determined that American forces not only killed the women but had also “dug bullets out of their victims’ bodies in the bloody aftermath” and then “washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened.”

(“US Admits Role In Killing Afghan Women,” NYT, April 5, 2010)



A “senior official” says no:

We have discovered no evidence in our investigation that any of our forces did anything to manipulate the evidence at the scene or the bodies,” said Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, the deputy chief of staff for communications for General McChrystal.

(“US Admits Role In Killing Afghan Women,” NYT, April 5, 2010)

Lies, Lies, Lies!!!!

First of all, if there was no cover up, why did the US military deny their soldiers did the dirty deed for months? It doesn’t make any sense. The military could have claimed it was investigating and wouldn’t ascertain guilt or innocence until they were through. Instead, there was straight-up denial. Why?

The reason is obvious: a cover up. The reporter on this story, Richard A. Oppel Jr., makes a good point when he wonders how US soldiers could have somehow been unaware that their bullets killed the women.

Are they that stupid?

Or shall we go with common sense? It was a cover up. Which means more Lies, Lies, Lies from the military.

Oh, I’m sure this is an isolated incident, right?

No. Civilians are being killing brutally and wantonly all the time in Afghanistan:

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has tried hard, and with some success, to reduce civilian casualties through new rules that include restricting night raids and also bringing Special Operations forces under tighter control. But botched Special Operations attacks — which are blamed for a large proportion of the civilian deaths caused by NATO forces — continue to infuriate Afghans and create support for the Taliban.

(“US Admits Role In Killing Afghan Women,” NYT, April 5, 2010)


Let’s take a deep breath and take stock of the situation. First, killings are being inflicted on innocent civilians by the US military on a wide scale.

Second, these are especially evil killings, at least in some cases. I don’t say “evil” lightly. The military initially claimed the pregnant women were dead hours before the Special Ops raid, that they were found tied up and stabbed in a back room (“US Admits Role...”).

The initial story is so different than the “abrupt about-face” version. Why say the women were found tied up, stabbed and tortured--if they weren’t?

You have to wonder, what did the sicko Special Forces do to these poor mothers with new lives in their wombs? In any case, shooting pregnant women and covering it up is horrible enough.

Vile and despicable sin wrapped in Lies, Lies, Lies!!!


If that weren’t enough to see that the US is an atrocious monster, there’s a second article published by the New York Times on April 5. This one is called, “Video Shows American Killing Of Photographer.”

This is not just any video. This is a leaked, secret document revealing the perspective of the helicopter pilots and also what they were saying:

Reuters had long pressed for the release of the video, which consists of 17 minutes of black-and-white aerial video and conversations between pilots in two Apache helicopters as they open fire on people on a street in Baghdad. The attack killed 12, among them the Reuters photographer, Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and the driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40.

(“Video Shows...” New York Times)

Note that Reuters “had long pressed” for release. So, we’re looking at another cover up, or at least unethical stall tactics.

As I read this article, I was shocked. The victims are some men on the street who show no obvious sign of having weapons. The pilots act like pimple-faced kids playing a video game, assuming the group to be insurgents, mistaking one of the reporter’s cameras for a weapon, and gunning them all down.

Then they “revel in their kills.”

Here are the direct quotes from the article. It makes me want to vomit:


“Look at those dead bastards,” one pilot says. “Nice,” the other responds.

A wounded man can be seen crawling and the pilots impatiently hope that he will try to fire at them so that under the rules of engagement they can shoot him again. “All you gotta do is pick up a weapon,” one pilot says.

A short time later a van arrives to pick up the wounded and the pilots open fire on it, wounding two children inside. “Well, it’s their fault for bringing their kids into a battle,” one pilot says.

At another point, an American armored vehicle arrives and appears to roll over one of the dead. “I think they just drove over a body,” one of the pilots says, chuckling a little.

(“Video Shows ...” )



Perhaps it is not an accident that these two news stories were published by the Times on the same day. In any case, it is time for US citizens to WAKE UP and realize that the rhetoric and patriotic propaganda about freedom and democracy hides a violent malevolent evil.

Think of Darth Vader and his conscience-less storm troopers. Think of helicopter pilots with the mentality of cruel 13-year-olds flying multi-million-dollar killing machines and mowing down scores of innocent people.

This is WRONG. It is utterly undeniably hideously WRONG. And I for one am speaking up to say I totally disagree with my country’s brute imperial ways. I apologize, so ashamed that my tax money is going for this.

I don’t know what I can do except speak out, protest, and write poems, SCREAMING through literature about the senseless stupidity of war.

Please forgive me, gods. Whoever you are, wherever you are judging us from, I am so sorry that we citizens of the Empire are such perverse and two-faced petty failures.

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