Massacre in Afghanistan

Afghan police and residents gather around a van containing the bodies of civilians killed in the shooting. Photograph: I Sameem/EPA

The news of a horrific brutal massacre of civilians in Afghanistan arrived in spurts yesterday accompanied with the news one lone soldier had come forward to turn himself in.

16 people, 9 of them children murdered in the middle of the night.

Not long after the initial report Reuters included some horrific witness accounts claiming the victims were murdered by a group of drunken American soldiers. This second account has traveled far and wide.

The online versions from multiple sources seem to have morphed so fast it’s difficult keeping track of changes but blogger b at Moon of Alabama copied a segment of the early Washington Post article that mentioned nothing of the witness accounts now included in their report .

U.S. military officials stressed that the shooting was carried out by a lone, rogue soldier, differentiating it from past instances of civilians killed accidentally during military operations.

But that story made little sense to me. Why would someone go out into the dark of the night and break into three houses and deliberately kill everyone there with shots to the head? That didn’t sound like a panic reaction. And why then return to the base?

The Reuters report first carried witness accounts along with an official denial:

A senior U.S. defense official in Washington rejected witness accounts that several apparently drunk soldiers were involved. “Based on the preliminary information we have this account is flatly wrong,” the official said. “We believe one U.S. service member acted alone, not a group of U.S. soldiers.”

“I saw that all 11 of my relatives were killed, including my children and grandchildren,” said a weeping Haji Samad, who said he had left his home a day earlier.

BLOOD-SPATTERED WALLS

The walls of the house were blood-splattered.

“They (Americans) poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them,” Samad told Reuters at the scene.

Neighbors said they had awoken to crackling gunfire from American soldiers, who they described as laughing and drunk.

“They were all drunk and shooting all over the place,” said neighbor Agha Lala, who visited one of the homes where killings took place.

“Their (the victims’) bodies were riddled with bullets.”

A NATO spokesperson has confirmed no military operations were taking place in the area when the massacre occurred.

The New York Times article ‘U.S. Sergeant Is Said to Kill 16 Civilians in Afghanistan’  offered an account that, if true, confirmed the bodies had been burned:

In Panjwai, a reporter for The New York Times who inspected bodies that had been taken to the nearby American military base counted 16 dead, and saw burns on some of the children’s legs and heads. “All the family members were killed, the dead put in a room, and blankets were put over the corpses and they were burned,” said Anar Gula, an elderly neighbor who rushed to the house after the soldier had left. “We put out the fire.”

I’m not really understanding the logic in a bunch of witnesses claiming there were multiple soldiers if there weren’t but I can see the logic in one man taking the fall for the team.

Mr. Hadi said there was more than one soldier involved in the attacks, and at least five other villagers described seeing a number of soldiers, and also a helicopter and flares at the scene. But that claim was unconfirmed — other Afghan residents described seeing only one gunman — and it was unclear whether extra troops had been sent out to the village after the attack to catch the suspect.

This reminds me of similar attacks in Iraq — the burning cover up of the rape of Abeer and execution of her and her family, along with those in Haditha, and Ishaqi. As Olbermann’s Ishaqi clip explains:

Wikileaks releases a diplomatic cable bolstering claims that US military personnel executed Iraqi civilians then called in an air strike to cover up evidence of that. The Pentagon today again denying those claims as it has since they first surfaced 5 years ago…. all corpses were shot in the head and handcuffed.

There is a commonality here with these latest executions in Afghanistan:

“They entered the room where the women and children were sleeping, and they were all shot in the head,” Esaqzai said, adding that he was doubtful of the U.S. account suggesting that the killings were the work of a lone gunman. “They were all shot in the head.”

Shot in the head. The burning of the bodies..will we ever know? Was this carried out by multiple drunken soldiers or one rogue crazed man? Were soldiers called in to cover up the crime which may explain why witnesses viewed multiple soldiers or was every single witness who saw multiple soldiers…delusional or lying? Did one man take the fall for a massacre committed by a group of drunken soldiers or did one man act alone? The chance we will ever know the answers is slim to none. What we do know is, for the most part, our military’s atrocities are covered up and go unpunished. The lives of civilians in the regions in which our military operates are, for the most part, not cherished by most Americans. We are not there to protect the lives of these innocents, we are there to exploit strategic geopolitical opportunities.

I cannot stand this, and yes there will be an investigation. My apology means nothing. In the crazed ‘privileged’ world we live in we are brainwashed not to consider the devastation, pain and loss of people who will wake up tomorrow knowing they will never see their loved ones again. Somehow perhaps we imagine their pain is less than ours would be if it was our child or mother or father or lover or best friend who was violently ripped from our lives, forever. There is a dehumanization taking place and it begins with us.

I pray for the healing.