In the darkness of the Afghan night, an American solider
went on a shooting massacre, killing 16 civilians for no apparent reason; most
of them were children. In February, President Obama was apologizing for the “accidental”
burning of Qur’ans and other religious material by American military troops. How
can we forget the gruesome torture and abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib? Or
the U.S. Marines who urinated on dead Afghan bodies? Is this war?
When is enough enough? Afghan students are staging
demonstrations against the United States military occupation of their land.
They don’t want us there and for good reason. After watching LinkTV’s “Iraq’s Secret War Files” (based on the biggest wikileaks release ever), I am ashamed as an American. Civilians-many of them children- are being killed all
the time in Iraq and Afghanistan. The official count is over 60,000, but I
would not be surprised if the actual count was much higher.
But it would be silly to blame the troops, because they are
victims as well. Our troops are hyped up with propaganda and lured with huge
bonuses is they go on a military tour. Then they are sent to a far-away dessert
land with no training about the culture or traditions. They see their comrades killed
and maimed. Many of them sustain injuries not only to their bodies, but to
their minds, suffering of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). In 2010, thesuicide rate among soldiers was higher than the rate of those who had met their
fate in combat.
The war in Afghanistan was started and continues on the
premise of eradicating “terror” but have we become the terrorists?
