US atrocities reach all time high in Afghanistan

US atrocities reach all time high in Afghanistan

"The purpose for which Afghanistan was invaded — to secure safe passage for a gas and oil pipeline from Central Asia and lay hands on the rich mineral deposits of Afghanistan — has not been achieved so far. Yet there is growing anxiety among ordinary Americans over the extended military mission that has nearly bankrupted America. Unemployment is high, the debt is rising and American cities are crumbling while the US pours billions of dollars into a war that appears to have no end or any identifiable benchmarks by which to measure progress. US officials talk optimistically about training Afghan police and army but the targets they have set have not been met so far."

Even as American officials optimistically talk about starting troop withdrawal from Afghanistan according to schedule in July, news about their atrocities continue to send shock waves globally. Recent reports and photos of torture and mutilation of Afghan civilians make Abu Ghraib look like a mild affair. These crimes are compounded by denials that the Americans have done or are capable of doing anything wrong since these are contrary to American “standards and values.” Their victims know better.

This past winter, American troops murdered even more Afghan civilians than in previous years. And true to form, they routinely claim the attacks were aimed at militants and that no civilians were killed. There has been a spate of such attacks in recent weeks that have soured relations between the US military and the Afghan government. To their customary brutality, the Americans have now added another tactic. Following a particularly gruesome attack in Ghaziabad district of Kunar province in late February, General David Petraeus said Afghan civilians had “deliberately burnt” their children’s legs and arms to make the attack look bad.

“I was dizzy. My head was spinning,” said an aide to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, referring to Petraeus’s remarks, during a meeting. “This was shocking. Would any father do this to his [own] children? This is really absurd.” Fazlullah Wahidi, governor of Kunar province, said at least 50 women and children perished in the attack carried out by US Apache helicopters. While the dust had not settled over this incident, NATO air strikes killed another nine children on March 1. Again, the Americans initially claimed these were insurgents. Later they apologized when it was confirmed that these were boys collecting wood in the mountains. Gates apologized for the attacks as did Obama. A day earlier, Afghans had demonstrated in Kabul against such attacks and Karzai angrily rejected an apology from Petraeus.

During a visit to Asadabad, capital of Kunar province on March 11, Karzai said NATO and the US should stop their operations in Afghanistan. “I ask NATO and US, with honor and humbleness and not with arrogance, to stop its operations on our soil,” Karzai said. The children were between the ages of 7 and 13 and collecting firewood in the Manogay district when they came under bombardment. “Afghans want peace and security and they cooperate with the world to bring peace and security,” Karzai said. “But we don’t want this war to continue any longer. We don’t want to repeat such bombardments and casualties.” The Americans have paid no attention to such appeals in the past; they are not likely to pay heed now and will dismiss them with contempt, regardless of how much suffering they cause.

Meanwhile, there was even more shocking news when the German weekly, Dier Spiegel on March 20 published photos of Afghan civilians killed by US soldiers and then posed with their naked bodies. The London daily, the Guardian, compared them to the photos of detainees tortured and humiliated in Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison. The British daily reported “commanders in Afghanistan are bracing themselves for possible riots and public fury triggered by the publication of ‘trophy’ photographs of US soldiers posing with the dead bodies of defenceless Afghan civilians they killed” (March 21). Some senior NATO officials have expressed fears the pictures could be even more damaging as they show the aftermath of deliberate murders of Afghan civilians by a rogue US Stryker tank unit that operated in the southern province of Qandahar last year.

Some of the activities of the American “kill team” are already public knowledge; 12 men are currently on trial in Seattle for their role in the killing of three civilians. Five soldiers are on trial for pre-meditated murder, after they staged killings to make it look like they were defending themselves against Taliban attacks. Other charges include the mutilation of corpses, the possession of images of human casualties and drug abuse. Other soldiers cut body parts of victims as “tro