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Killing Civilians in Afghanistan is Terrorism
In Kabul, on the same day that Der Spiegel released photos documenting American soldiers posing with the bodies of civilians they murdered, the Transitional Justice Coordinating Group (TJCG), the umbrella organization for NGO’s in Afghanistan that are pursuing transitional justice, gathered Afghan, Australian, American, and German peacemakers to discuss methods to bring peace and security to Afghanistan. The photos present the grim reality that this conflict is characterized by civilian killing and violence.
In 2001, the American led ISAF (International Security Assistance Force), a coalition of the richest nations in the world, began military operations in Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 killing of civilians in New York and Washington. The purpose of the operations was to fight terrorism and seek reprisal for the Taliban’s harboring of Al Qaeda. The operation has turned into a near decade long war on one of the poorest nations in the world.
After nearly ten years of war Afghanistan is mired in terror, brutality, and a security situation that is worsening. Among Afghans there is growing consensus that the ISAF is pursuing military measures, such as the formation and arming of independent local militias under the banner of the “Afghan Local Police” against the wishes of President Karzai and the Afghan people, which undermine the prospects of peace in the future and further endangers ordinary people. However, it is the killing of civilians by American military personal and mercenaries that most enflames the conflict and expands the rift between ISAF and the Afghan people.
Most Westerners are familiar with the thousands of American civilians killed 9/11, some people know about the atrocities committed by the armed opposition groups in Afghanistan, and even fewer people are familiar with the stories of Afghan civilians killed by ISAF forces. Some of the recent civilian killings by ISAF, primarily composed of American forces include: 2children in Kunar province on March 14, 9 children collecting firewood in Kunar province on March 1, five civilians including two children who were searching for food in Kapisa province on February 24, 22 women, 26 boys, and 3 old men in a raid on insurgents in Kunar province on February 17, 2 civilians were killed and one injured while traveling in a van in Helmand province on February 3.
As the fallout from the Der Spiegel photos continues to be felt around the world, ISAF and the other belligerents who have publicly stated their objective is to prevent terrorism need to recognize that the killing of civilians whether by Taliban, mercenaries, militias, insurgents, or by soldiers of a nation is terrorism.
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Show AllKilling is terrorism, period.
Not all. Self-defense killing is said to be "justifiable homicide" whether by individuals or a people. Then the question becomes is it really self defense or is that just an excuse to go on a spree and whack people you had wanted to get to anyway.
Qadaffi (is there an INcorrect way to spell his name?) is claiming self defense. That's a tough claim for me to buy from the head of a nationstate with a whole panoply of weapons about an angry ragtag uprising. But that's what he and many heads of state, including the U.S. government, say when they start one of their killing sprees. They said it about Vietnam -- that we had to "stop Communism there" or it would spread and get us here. They say the same thing about Terrorism, by which they mean Islamic militant terrorism. Fight them there so we don't have to fight them here. -- what, they're going to come over from Afghanistan and invade us? More suicide bombers could be dispatched, of course, but as it has been shown, they can come from anywhere, even in U.S. suburbia.
So when does self-defense killing morph into terrorism?
Even in the most "justified" form of self defense, killing still installs terror in people's minds, even the person that justifiably defended him or her self. It is a violent act and violence breeds terror.
See it ok when the USA kills civilians. Even if they do it by the tens of thousands and the hundreds of thousands. The USA kills Civilians only for "Good reasons".
When one of those "Madmen" like Ghaddafi do the same well, the peace loving humanitarian countries of the world can NOT tolerate it. Ghaddafi has to go and if removing him involves dropping bombs and killing more civilians, well it all for the greater good is it not?
I grow sick to death of the USA and the savage butchery they inflict on peoples the world over and I grow sicker of the apologists who show up to defend the same. I grow sick to death of Canada tagging along with that most Savage and Brutal of Empires. (A country that invests its resources to develop weapons like Nuclear bombs, Cluster Munitions and DIME and DU Munitions IS savage and Brutal and lacking in any compassion for their fellow man)
The numbers killed by the night raids and bombings by the ISAF in Afghanistan are vastly understated as an earlier article pointed out. And yes, they use fighter planes to attack those same Civilians and Helicopter gunships just like that "Madman" Ghadaffi.
Terrorism is the poor mans WAR
WAR is the Rich mans TERRORISM
- ISAF and the other belligerents who have publicly stated their objective is to prevent terrorism -
Preventing (future) terrorism. That's Public Law 107-40. I suggest again that we stop ignoring this odious law.
The problem of Afghanistan won't be solved until we deal with the insane and unachievable goal that the US is trapped into fighting for.
Because,
In order to prevent future terrorism forever, the US will need to stay in Afghanistan (and elsewhere) forever.
Public Law 107-40.
Repeal this authorization for Obama's dictatorial powers..Stop this insane and DAFT military effort to prevent future terrorism forever.
We are all potential future terrorists, therefore it is only a matter of time before they come for us.
The word "terrorism" has been so over-used it is now meaningless.
At this point, the US govt. (directed by the kleptocratic Oligarchy behind the curtain) is the worst perpetrator of war crimes, crimes against humanity, blatant hubris and hypocrisy, double-standards, callous disregard for their own people, let alone those of other nations etc. etc. The Fed Reserve is responsible for exporting inflation and rising food prices around the world (remember the US dollar is still the world market and reserve currency) resulting in poor people starving.
To many, the preceding statement is hyperbole. However IMO anyone who believes that either has Stockholm Syndrome, or is part of the Oligarchy.
How much more can we and the rest of the world take before something is done?
"Killing Civilians in Afghanistan is Terrorism"
And so it is in Iraq, Libya, Bosnia, Viet Nam, Korea, Japan, on and on and on. It was terrorism when they marched through a section of THIS country as well "awhile back" (why do you think that the South is so f#cked up? It is a result of the usa's "Total Warfare" policies).
Animals kill
Many do indeed, not all. I'm not an animals expert, all I know comes from watching nature documentaries on TV, but to my knowledge no animals construct complicated machines to kill over a long distance in order to instill fear into others, or plot and scheme to kill the way humans do. It's true chimpanzees fight wars (it took Jane Goodall a long time to discover that part of chimp behavior), but their close relatives the bonobos just have sex with each other a lot and this reduces social aggression. A bunch of us tried that in the late 60s and it didn't work. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
If human's animal nature is to kill and we can't stop it, why try?
Are Bonobos smarter than we are?
It's also our nature to cooperate and care for each other. We aren't driven to kill. My theory is that humans became predators late in our evolutionary history and we're not as adapted to it as the other predators. Just because we can and do kill doesn't mean we have to. I've never killed anyone although I've certainly felt like it.
I wish we had a social system like bonobos, but we're better at making contraptions and having discussions using written words.
If killing is nature's way of preventing overpopulation and selecting the fittest, why are liberals against it?
We're pissing off readbetweenthe_lines again so we'd better stop this silly shit.. You'd have to ask each liberal why they're against it. I'm against it because I don't want it to happen to me. I don't think a free-for-all shoot-'em-up killing spree would select for the fittest, just leave a lot of bloody bodies around. That's the last I will say on this topic.
Has any other Nobel Peace Prize winner ever declared war and launched tomahawk missles on another country?
Not getting political here. Just asking. I am not completely aware of all the actions of individuals after they won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Menachem Begin and Henry Kissinger come to mind
Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama is like awarding the Emily Post Manners Prize to Snooky.
Killing Civilians in Afghanistan is Terrorism!
I added the exclamation point because it's as bald a statement of fact as can be made.
The retail atrocities revisited in this article, like the endless series of drone-missile atrocities in the "Af-Pak" theater of operations, are manifestly part of a deliberate campaign of imperial military terrorism. They are tacitly considered win-win outcomes from the amoral perspective of imperial military "realpolitik".
They're obviously tactics consistent with a strategy that is a corollary of the so-called "Madman Theory" proudly enunciated by Richard Nixon as a vital component of his foreign policy.
The trick was to convince leaders of other countries that Nixon was indeed mentally unstable-- literally mad-- and that his behavior was irrational and volatile. Fearing the consequences of provoking an unpredictable Amerikan head of state, leaders of hostile Communist Bloc nations would be intimidated into proceeding as cautiously, deferentially, and submissively as possible.
Only an ignoramus, fool, or credulous dupe would doubt that the now-settled history of violent and indiscriminately lethal and ruinous Amerikan military "excesses" and "mishaps" are part of a calculated strategy to terrify and demoralize its political targets and victims.
It's win-win because they either annihilate the bad guys they're supposedly after, or terrorize the hell out of them and everybody else in the vicinity if they don't. As the Amerikan military brass learned so well from the pioneers and pace-setters in the art, the Israeli Defense Forces, military terrorism ain't beanbag!
On another note:
"In 2001, the American led ISAF (International Security Assistance Force), a coalition of the richest nations in the world, began military operations in Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 killing of civilians in New York and Washington."
__________________________
It's simply pathetic and unconscionable that this Big Lie-- in the form of a Big Non-Sequitur-- was so readily accepted, even welcomed, by complacent and unreflective Amerikan citizens as a fig leaf of "self-defense", i.e. justification, for a bout of vengeful and vindictive bloodletting in Afghanistan.
I still want to spit when I recall pious nitwits like David Letterman, as the Voice of the Amerikan Everyman, glibly summarizing the situation along the lines of (I paraphrase): "Well, isn't that pretty much how everybody in the U.S. felt after 9/11? That we needed to go over there and kick somebody's ass?"
There's a direct line between those dots and the "rogue" soldiers, spies, and mercenaries still perpetrating terroristic Merry Mixups with impunity.
It wouldn't hurt, at this time, to resurrect the Gore for Porn story from 2005, since it was very similar: trophy photos of dead and mutilated "enemy", although there was no specific "kill team" as in this case.
How many of you even saw those Gore for Porn photos? They were not on line for very long, and then the web host was shut down and prosecuted because the photos were judged "obscene".
It seems to me that it is not so much the photos which were obscene, but the acts the photos depicted. But the acts went unpunished, while at lleast one person who published proof of the "gore for porn" atrocities, in the form of photographs, was prosecuted. (See http://www.polksheriff.org/NewsRoom/Pages/847.aspx )
after 911, I felt like an abuse victim, wondering how the hell I defend myself when the abuser is my own keeper...
nothing that has happened since has changed this feeling...the abuse simply continues, and escalates...all in the name of security...
yes, OS, the big lie...
Hmmm
Clearly there is a double standard in the world. Look at Israel for example; A bomb goes off and kills 1 israeli?, Obama publicly condemns the act of "terrorism". Israel acts on the notion that the Palestinians did it and bombs Gaza - again. They bombed Gaza last week killing civilians left and right, including women children. And yet not a word from Obama or the Media on this act of terrorism. To date no proof as to who actually did the bombing. Israel of course is infamous for its false flags ops around the globe.
People since the dawn of man when the bigger guy beat up the littler one and took everything NOTHING has changed. Might makes right period. Forget right and wrong, good or evil. In todays world those countries with nukes have a different set of "rights" than those without. It is a sad state of affairs when the biggest terrorist country in the world is the good old USA and its able cohort in crime Israel is number 2. We should all be so proud.
ddearborn,
Well said. Killing civilians in Afghanistan is terrorism but killing civilians in GAZA is A-OKAY for livesimply, rofl, alienobserver, Sabocat, drolltroll, Jersyjoe bastions of logical and unbiased thinking at CD.
It seems that for those parragons of high intelligence and ethics, there is a limit to reasoned discourse. Press the buttton with the six pointed star on it and they stop thinking and start snarling.
Partisan thinking is what has made the world the cesspool that it is. When "your team" can do no wrong, you become part of the problem.
But I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter much anymore. The USA is just one more country in a long line of "hubris champions" headed for the wastebin of history.
It didn't have to be this way.
Absolutely. Your next-to-last sentence says it all. Sooner or later, the U.S. will be history. Thank GOD when that happens. A great evil will be removed from the world. Unfortunately, the ride to the bottom will be a very nasty one, not only for the rest of the world which has to bear the brunt of its destructive policies, but also the American people, which are only now starting to truly feel the grip tighten on them as the corporate oligarchy that runs the country begins to really squeeze.
50 years, tops. That is all America has left. Fortunately I won't be alive then, although if I could move to some remote corner of the globe it would be rather enjoyable to watch it happen.
Actually, it turns out that the victim is not even Israeli but British. To add to your comment, I'd like to say that a little known fact in the US is that Israel seems to have a serious mafia problem. Those boys settle their scores by bombing each other. Even the Shin Bet has been known to bomb them instead of arresting them. And they even have a term for it, they call it "criminal activity" vs. terrorism which is when the Palestinians do it. If you want to see that at work, do what I did yesterday: visit to haaretz.com and do a search under "bomb." I came up with 20 pages, each with 10 or so articles on the subject and maybe one or two describing "terrorism" by Palestinians while the others were about the Mafia and their hits. If you do what I did, you'll see that this bombing screams of either Mafia or false flag. The reasons and the action following the act are obvious.
I thought one of the Ten Commandments was "Thou shalt not kill?" I thought that was one of the moral absolutes? Seems like no one follows these any more.
I've been told, though you'd have to check with a scholar, that the correct translation is "Thou shalt do no murder." There's a whole lot of killing that goes on in the Old Testament.
Killing is not terrorism. Killing a nazi is pleasure. Pleasure. Enjoyment. Hobby, Passtime. Recreation. Better than golf. But not terrorism.
The SHAME of it all!
Afghan civilians, tauntingly minding their own business, luring helpless American psychopaths into firing upon them deliberately, and then having the GALL to die at the slightest touch of a well-aimed bullet or grenade! This is asymmetric warfare at its worst, and it has to STOP!
...or wait a minute...?!
What this soldier did was inexcusable!! His actions have endangered the lives of other service members, and, indeed, all Americans at home and abroad!! He should be immediately placed in pre-trial solitary confinement, be charged with "aiding the enemy in time of war", and only allowed one hour of exercise each day, limited to walking figure-eights in a tiny cell!! For all we know he's an AL QUEADA plant, and he murdered those civilians to deliberately sabotage our efforts to win the hearts and minds of the downtrodden Islamic communities we're trying to rebuild!! We should TORTU --ahh, that is, "interrogate" him-- IMMEDIATELY!!
You're thinking about Bradley Manning. Different "crime".
where is OBL???
Anyone who does not see that fascist amerika IS the World's # 1 terrorist state is lost in a sea of delusion ! The good news; the fascist amerikan empire IS collapsing faster every day!
War is profitable for Obama's benefactors and donors, and peace doesn't pay. Afghanistan has rich deposits of minerals, including rare earths, that the US covets and desires to control, which requires a puppet government. It's a very old and widely used paradigm, greed and arrogance disguised as righteous indignation and humanitarian concern. When will the American people finally figure this out?
Why can't we hold US Congress members accountable for war crimes since they continue to fund these illegal and immoral atrocities?
I have to say, I was quite shocked at the tone of a news report on CNN I just watched. A man, Al Mehdi, had just gone into one of Gaddafi's barracks and blew himself up, making way for rebel fighters to go in and kill his forces there.
For a news station which makes their views quite clear - against suicide bombings especially in Palestine/Jerusalem - they made this report quite contradictory. CNN showed the man's two daughters upset their father was gone, but still very "proud" of him. This report was made in such a way which showed the man in a very good light. Aren't both these groups of people - Libyan rebel forces and Palestinians - who turn into suicide bombers fighting for their freedom and liberation? So why is it heroic for Al Mehdi to blow himself up and not a Palestinian? Because this was in one of Gaddafi's barracks and not an open marketplace?
A war-zone is a war-zone and a soldier, too, has a family.
Now I will not go as far as to comment on what does or does not constitute as terrorism. I believe the word "terrorism" is a tool which was re-invented, almost, for the use of some leaders to incite fear amongst their own civilians in order to justify their own moves. Dexter can be a good guy to some, and a bad guy to others. This is all a grey area. There is no right or wrong. All I want is that you justify your actions with the truth. Shoot ... if there is NO other way. But don't go on a killing spree just because you 'legally' can.
Getting rid of ALL USA military is the way to start. After that we have to redefine the mission of the State Dept which is responsible for perhaps as many deaths as the Offense Dept. And don't forget about the Black Budget, CIA, NSA............... It is up to the voters. If they ever vote all dem/repubs out of Congress, we will win peace.
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the Bridge at No Gun Ri
We fight the corporations' battles
In the air on land and sea.
From the shores of Guantanamo Bay
To the secret torture cell
We'll transform each quiet village
Into an everlasting Hell.
We are the Planetary Death Squad
With bombs and guns for hire
We have sworn our allegiance
To this Fascist Empire.
(Dedicated to the memory of Gen. Smedley Butler, USMC. At the time of his death, Gen. Butler was the most decorated Marine in the USMC. Gen. Butler is the author of the anti-war classic, War is a Racket.)
A little known fact even among the alternative media is that Pakistanis have been vigorously protesting the use of drones on the civilian population. A recent article on the subject on Al Jazeera was accompanied by a picture of the protesters holding a banner which says it all:
“Terrorist? CIA or Taliban? Ask the victims of drone attacks!”