CROSSVILLE —
After a decade of war in Afghanistan, our effort to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people is now coming to a disgraceful and shameful ending.
Three events this year have sealed the fate of this decade-long effort. In January, a video surfaced showing Marines laughing and urinating on three Afghan bodies. In February, Korans were burned on a garbage dump of a U.S. base north of Kabul. And in the early morning hours of Sunday, March 11, sixteen Afghan civilians (nine children under twelve, three women, and four men) were shot or stabbed to death in their own homes, and some of their bodies set on fire, by a staff sergeant assigned to a forward operating base outside Kandahar.
The Afghan government has now demanded that U.S. forces no longer be allowed to go into Afghan villages, and that they move up the date for their evacuation from the country. It has also demanded that the staff sergeant be brought to trial in Afghanistan. He, however, has been whisked back to the U.S. where he is being held in the Fort Leavenworth prison. A Seattle-based lawyer, John Henry Browne, has been assigned to his case.
The 38-year-old staff sergeant, Robert Bales, had enlisted in the military soon after 9/11, and was home-based at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington, where he was part of the Third Stryker Brigade in the Second Infantry Division. The base had been described by the Stars and Stripes newspaper as "the most troubled one in the military." 2011 marked a record for soldier suicides there. Bales had been deployed three times from there to Iraq where he had suffered a number of injuries to his head and legs. He had hoped to be sent next to Europe or Hawaii, and was particularly upset to be sent to Afghanistan.
As has been pointed out, his profile—including a history of war injuries, financial pressures, disappointment about being passed over for promotion, brushes with law enforcement, and a wife who went through pregnancy and years of parenting alone—matches that of many other American soldiers and Marines. So far, 15,460 Americans have been wounded there, and 1,787 killed.
Journalist Chris Hedges has written a perceptive analysis of this war and its character: "The war in Afghanistan—where the enemy is elusive and rarely seen, where the cultural and linguistic disconnect makes every trip outside the wire a visit to hostile territory, where it is clear that you are losing despite the vast industrial killing machine at your disposal—feeds the culture of atrocity.
"The fear and stress, the anger and hatred, reduce all Afghans to the enemy, and this includes women, children, and the elderly. Civilians and combatants merge into one detested nameless, faceless mass. The psychological leap to murder is short. And murder happens every day in Afghanistan. It happens in drone strikes, artillery bombardments, airstrikes, missile attacks and the withering suppressing fire unleashed in villages from belt-fed machine guns.
"To decry the butchery of this case and to defend the wars of occupation we wage is to know nothing about combat. We kill children nearly every day in Afghanistan. We do not usually kill them outside the structure of a military unit. If an American soldier had killed or wounded scores of civilians after the ignition of an improvised explosive device against his convoy, it would not have made the news. Units do not stick around to count their 'collateral damage.' But the Afghans know. They hate us for the murderous rampages. They hate us for our hypocrisy."
A World War II study determined that, after 60 days of continuous combat, 98 percent of all surviving soldiers will have become psychiatric casualties. Does that still hold true for today?
Today, however, we have another kind of casualty. Nations that are addicted to violence to solve national and international problems can also become psychiatric casualties. Bomb Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Iran...and that will help bring us peace! As A.J. Muste reminded us many years ago, "There is no way to peace; peace is the way."
Opinion
LION AND THE LAMB: Death comes in the night
- Opinion
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LION AND THE LAMB: More than meets the eye
It was a quiet Saturday afternoon, and my wife Sheral suggested I join her on a shopping trip. In Crossville Sheral went inside a store and I stayed outside looking at the bargain specials. My mind was in neutral, so I almost missed the little boy’s question. He was about seven or eight, evidently had just seen his first Amish family, and they had seemed very strange to him.
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WE THE PEOPLE: No time to govern
Bob Dole’s tribute to George McGovern at the time of his death last year was both beautiful and touching. Speaking of the friendship they shared and the work they did together during their time in the Senate and later in retirement, Dole said McGovern “was one of the finest public servants I ever had the privilege to know.” He went on to say that they knew what they had in common was far more important than their different political philosophies.
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TIDBITS: Be wary of home improvement shows
Sometimes I think home improvement stores need a screening tool of some sort, perhaps some kind of licensing or reference check. For example, before one can walk in and buy that handy dandy table saw, they need three people to vouch that they aren’t likely to cut off a bodily appendage.
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STUMPTALK: Obama’s Benghazi betrayal
“Betrayal” is an ugly word. “To fail or desert especially in a time of need.” Those who pay attention to the actions of Obama are justified in saying we have been betrayed. Think about the IRS and DOJ debacles. Clearly our ambassador and his staff at the Benghazi consulate were betrayed, deserted in their time of mortal need. Obama allowed them to be murdered.
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Lion and the Lamb: When schools go beyond the three Rs
The three Rs, reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic, have always been at the foundation of education in Cumberland County. Recently, however, a fourth R has been added — religion. In permission was granted representatives of The Gideons International to distribute Bibles to fifth-graders in the Brown Elementary School in Crossville, and this took place April 11.
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We the People: Your vote — use it or lose it
A powerful faction within the Republican Party is determined to downsize our federal government. They want to reshape programs that originated to protect common folks like us.
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Stumptalk: The elephant in the room
I recently saw video footage of the president surrounded by the heads of all the services; they had assembled to address the continuing and scandalous problem of sexual harassment in the armed forces. The elephant in the room, of course, was young women in the military serving in close quarters with young men.
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We the People: Reality check, anyone?
Harry Truman had a birthday anniversary in early May. Harry was proud of being from the “show me” state. Republicans who aspire to stop all progress and set the clock back should take a lesson from Truman. He did something besides complain and obstruct progress.
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The Lion and the Lamb: The devil and the IRS
National news these past several weeks has focused on a scandal in the Internal Revenue Service. IRS agents have been targeting Tea Party and other conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. As this story developed over the past several weeks, however, it has become apparent that the IRS problem is much greater than the complaints raised by the Tea Party.
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Tidbits: What's in a name?
Being born in the time before routine ultrasounds, my parents thought I was going to be a boy. I'm not sure if mom was carrying high or low, or if the wedding ring on a string went one way or the other, or what other old wives tale was used to determine I would be a he rather than a she, but that's what they thought and that's how they prepared.
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