Excellent post!

Cool post, Iowa Pinko. This bending of language to maintain the illusion that America's military macho, and all of its horrific fruit, represents rational behavior, whilst those who respond (with what weapons they have) in a retaliatory manner are somehow taken for menaces, primitives, or worse... helps to keep citizens of the Homeland, who might otherwise be troubled by an intact conscience, blinded by the deceptive Light of an endless stream of luminous propaganda.

Glen Greenwald's article should be stashed in the circular file, for it suffers from such absurd oversimplification as to render it not only worthless but rather a piece of unmitigated propaganda.

Not even the mainstream media paints the issues in such black and white terms as Greenwald would have us believe.

But what he doesn't say is that many (if not most) in the left side of the American political spectrum participate in the demonization of the "primitive" tribal or Islamic Afghani people.

That the Afghanis have a different standard of gender relationships, that they impose very harsh punishments for minor crimes, that they place tribal or sectarian loyalty over universal legal principles of justice - are unquestionable evidence to feminists and progressives of the backwardness and immorality of those people.

And that primitiveness demands that we modernize and democratize the Afghani nation (though we would prefer it be done by somewhat less bloody means).

While I agree with your sentiments, Elizabeth, Obama the Baby Killer will ignore all of those articles and all voices of sanity and reason, because he loves what he does. You can't rouse a dead soul.

" if the news media would personalize each of Bale's victims with stories of their lives"

Your point is well taken in the sense of "personalizing the victims"... but by saying they are "Bale's Victims", you are accepting of the official narrative without serious analysis. Perhaps that it's because the "one bad apple" narrative is far easier to understand and relate to than the "US Military has systemic psychotic issues".

It is baffling to me how anyone can ignore these crimes. The faces of the Afghan people mourning their dead haunt me.

Excellent post. It bears repeating:

"When we ignore, without any good reason, what Afghans are saying (multiple perpetrators) we are buying into the very same process we are trying to criticize here."

If possible, Obama will have Karzai arrest these truth finders on trumped up charges, throw them in a dark prison and keep them there. He's done it before.

EXACTLY!

"Robert Bales is a corporate soldier."
______________________

The Man In the Gray Camo Suit

So you accept that this was an act of a "lone gunman"?

two rapes and 16 murders in one hour, two separate locations... plus the time to "pile the bodies and set them alight". Dude must be superman.

Powerful distillation... in one simple statement.

Like Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph, Cochise, Geronimo, Black Kettle, Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, William Schroeder, Sandra Scheuer and millions more.

Well said but I would suggest that the war reparations come from the corporations that profited from the these wars and not from the US taxpayer.

America was founded by people who made enemies of the original inhabitants of the "new" land. The indigenous peoples began to resist the relentless occupation of their land and other forms of violence directed at them, and this gave rise to a deep fear of the "savage" Other.

Slavery added to this paranoia, as the colonists, later American citizens, grew to fear the possibility of resistance by people they had enslaved. Later on this fear took on a sexual dimension, as white Americans expressed fear and rage over the supposed "uncontrollable" lust of the "savages" who were either enslaved, or who descended from those who had been enslaved.

America was built on the near extermination of the indigenous people; and on the forced labour of enslaved people.

Hitler's favourite reading was the works of Karl May, a widely popular German author who wrote Westerns. From this reading Hitler learned how the "white" people had committed genocide against the indigenous people in order to seize their land and resources. When Hitler invaded the USSR in an attempt to seize its land and resources, he ordered that hundreds of thousands of copies of May's books be distributed to his troops.

Hitler also knew about, and admired, the eugenic experiments conducted on African Americans and "mentally deficient" people in the early part of the 20th century in many parts of the US. He ordered that a program of extermination be applied to the "mentally deficient" in Germany ("life unworthy of life"), which led to the deaths of many thousands of people diagnosed as such.

In the USSR, Hitler planned to bring about a massive reduction of the population by depriving the inhabitants of food and by extermination. The figure mentioned was over 30 million. The remainder of the population would be deprived of education, and would be forced to work as serfs for German colonists, who would settle in the land "cleared' by the Hunger Plan. In these plans, the activities of the American settlers who killed off the indigenous occupants of lands on the "frontier" and settled those lands as they saw fit was an inspiration to Hitler.

Hitler made the mistake of attempting to colonize a country that was capable of defending itself successfully against his invasion.He attempted to treat the Soviet peoples as if they were similar to the indigenous people of America in terms of organization and economic development.

Hitler's schemes. elaborated in great detail by a host of brilliant subordinates, were an attempt to repeat the American experience of conquering and settling an area occupied by backward people. His invasion of the USSR was a colonial land grab on a massive scale, with a timetable not of centuries, as in America, but of a few decades.

Hitler's war broke the back of Western European imperialism, and brought the US to the forefront as an imperial power. The US has, since the end of WWII, carried on its long tradition of inflicting violence on "uncivilized" people, though without the goal of settling their land. This incidental difference -- due to the vastness of the American landmass, which has so far been sufficient to satisfy American land hunger -- is used by many apologists to pretend that there is a huge difference between what Hitler attempted, and what America is attempting.

But the open racism, the ruthlessness, the arrogance, and the refusal to learn from experience (except to develop more effective means of dominance) has all the hallmarks of Hitler's racist, ruthless, arrogant, and self-satisfied attempt to use American methods to make Germany a world power.

Hitler's attempt to exterminate every single Jew took his fantasies -- and paranoia -- to a horrific extreme. It has not been copied by the Americans. However, Hitler might have said the Americans didn't need to copy him in this policy, since they had already -- to all intents and purposes -- already accomplished it in regard to the indigenous peoples in America. Rather, he might have said that the American were his teachers, and he was their eager pupil when it came to conquering land, exterminating opponents, settling a vast area, and using it as a base for world power.

Only if Americans face up to the facts of their history, and confront the deeply embedded "lessons" they learned early and never really put behind them, can they do away with their paranoia, their guilt, and the their brutal, false attempts to bury both of these under massive violence.

Staff Sgt. Bales is a typical American soldier -- or was, until he carried out his massacre. He was enacting an American tradition when he fought in Iraq, and then in Afghanistan. He now takes his place alongside all those American "heroes" who ranged over the lands occupied by "backward, unChristian, savage" peoples, killing them in the name of "freedom", "security", and "Civilization".

Now sit back and watch as the American people shower him with sympathy and "understanding"; as their way to escape their complicity in his crimes.

lanista: You say Islamic violence against Afghans? Almost all Afghans are Muslim--or are you not aware of that?

No offense, lanista, but if I were you I wouldn't be so quick to refer readers to the comments thread to yesterday's Scott Long article.

Your characteristically simplistic, crypto-exceptionalist comment there, which you obviously still consider to be a telling "score" against the "Blame Amerika First" boogie-man you're always chasing, was eloquently dissected and refuted by a series of informative and thoughtful rebuttals.

Ianista you do have a small point. We should condemn the civilian murders by whomever, and I am sure most here agree. Likewise, the MSM makes a carreer of demonizing the victims of USA's fascist imperial policies and routinely over estimates the oppositions murderous acts and miminalizes the millions murdered by the USA in the last sixty years. Supposedly we have some control over the murders committed in our name, but in reality we control the Taliban as much as we control OilyBomber Inc. So with our voices we attempt to temper the aggressor we fininacially support, and we deal with our frustration in attempting to create a nation which adheres to universal morallity. We speak but few hear, perhaps you may hear. Keep in mind the Taliban had pacified and stabilized Afghanistan after decades of horrendous civil war, ignited in great extent by the USA's arming of Foundalmentalists and Landlords pre- Soviet invasion. I am sure you are too intelligent to believe all the false excuses presented by the MSM for attacking Afghanistan.

Andy UK:

I think you are right that sadistic, adventurous fantasies are surely what motivate some people to join the military.Throughout history, the soldier has always been a morally ambiguous figure, because he is a licensed murderer. Belligerent, macho states, like the USA, which make a habit of war will go to great lengths to "rehabilitate" the moral image of the warrior, from cold killer to warm "hero."

I've always liked the sentiments of Ralph Waldo Emerson on the barbarism of soldiering:
"I do not like to see a sword at a man's side. If it threaten man, it threatens me. A company of soldiers is an offensive spectacle."

Would that more people, in this violent troubled world, were of the same mind as Emerson!

Don't look too closely at that 1993 WTC bombing, or you might find that it was the really the FBI, up to their usual tricks. And while you're at it, don't look too closely at the Oklahoma City bombing, either, or you might find the clues lead to conclusions that differ from what the MSM would have us believe. There is hardly an act of "terror" that the US isn't behind, though they always have us looking elsewhere. The real terrorists are in DC, Langley, the Pentagon, Wall Street, and NATO.

His lawyer stated this evening that Bales does not recall anything at all that happened after he left his base camp until he returned to camp.

The defence (may be), that he didn't do it? __ He went for a walk is all. He was distraugt, couldn't sleep, because his best friend lost a leg from a roadside bomb two days prior Bales said,,,, not one day prior as has been reported. No military info yet on the bomb incident.

The defense... The Afghans must have had a fight between the two villages if anyone was killed and we all know how those drug addicted people are over there... Where is the evidence of anyone murdered or raped? (*Habeus Corpus, where are the bodies?*) __ Where are the ballistics, what type of bullets were fired? Wher is the blood evidence, the DNA evidence, prints, etc, etc, etc? ... It was pitch black, who could identify Bales as the killer?

A very good defense lawyer could build a very good defense if his client remains silent and knows nothing about any killings. And his lawyer is one of the very best.

If he is convicted of murder, the max sentence is death, UCMJ... If he just goes to jail and his wife divorses him, I doubt he will get many offers of marriage... He owes ($1.5) million for a legal judgment against him due to losing a lawsuit where he was found guilty of fraud when he was a stock broker.

That court judgment was about10 years years ago and he hasn't paid any of the judgment, so the interest on the ($1.5) mil is growing, it would be about double now.

That may be why he joined the army, as I do not believe any can garnish a soldier's wages for any reason except child or wife support... I may be incorrect about that, but I don't think so.

Bales was a sniper... Soldiers who are snipers volunteer for sniper duty... Snipers are very highly trained to be top notch killers, more than half usually wash out of a class.... People who are snipers would very possibly, or maybe most likely, have no remorse for killing anyone,,, drunk or sober... Most serial killers were said to be "nice" guys, friendly, family type and it did not seem possible for them to be evil killers..... But they were.

There will be a Hollywood movie... Only in Aneica.

If anyone invaded my country I would be happy to help them leave by planting IEDs.It would be fully justifiable, as even the UN recognises the right of the occupied to fight back against the occupier. The defenders of invaded nations , especially those who die in defence of the invaded nation, are usually seen as heroes by the defneders. Even the USA recognises that those who die fighting for what their country believes in are heroes to be awarded a hero's burial in Arlington cemetery.