This sums it all up.
"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." -- From Rolling Stone
The following is the latest video release from the Army investigation. From Wired:
"Specialist Adam Winfield, one of the five soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division charged with murdering Afghan civilians, tells an investigator how he took part in an execution in a Kandahar village."
We will not publish any of the Afghanistan "Kill Team" photos. But they should be seen. And this story needs to be heard. These actions were done in our name. That we as a nation have demanded little accountability over the last 10 years of permawar is no small factor in these acts. That abdication of our civilian responsibilities, coupled with so few successful courts-martial for obvious war crimes in that time, created the climate in which the "Kill Team" was possible.
Men like Allen West have actually gained office in part because of their having participated in obscenities. Shameful brutes like Iliano Panatano would have been sentenced to prison or hard labor in previous conflicts. Instead, they now come home and Tea Partiers call them "heroes" specifically because they think anyone who accuses an American of a war crime is a "traitor."
Which led us here.
Hell, Grey, they're only Muslims. Isn't that the plan: dehumanize and then exterminate. A few harsh words, a little mob action, and it becomes a family sport. Haven't you ever seen the photos of children attending a lynching? Eyes glowing, cheeks flushed, a first rate adventure all around.
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