It Is Apparently Okay to Kill Hundreds and Not Tell Anyone We Did It — the United States’ Cowardly Comfort with War Crimes

©2013 Peter Free

 

01 August 2013

 

 

Put yourself in their shoes — and remember that we once believed in American honor

 

From Cora Currier at Pro Publica:

 

 

The long saga began in November 2001, when Taliban prisoners who had surrendered to Northern Alliance commander Abdul Rashid Dostum were transported in shipping containers without food or water.

 

According to eyewitness accounts and forensic work by human rights investigators, hundreds of men died of suffocation while others were shot, and their bodies buried at the desert site of Dasht-i-Leili.

 

The investigation found that no U.S. personnel were involved, said White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

 

Other than that, she said, there is "no plan to release anything."

 

The silence leaves many unanswered questions about what may have been one of the worst war crimes since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, including why previous American investigations were shut down, and how evidence was destroyed in the case.

 

© 2013 Cora Currier, White House Closes Inquiry Into Afghan Massacre – and Will Release No Details, Pro Publica (31 July 2013) (paragraphs split and reordered)

 

 

An inexcusable stain on the flag — no matter how one looks at it

 

Even if Americans were not present during at Dasht-i-Leili, hiding our allies’ war crimes demeans the moral defensibility of our struggle against terrorism.

 

Worse, the Taliban in 2001 arguably had nothing to do with the September 2001 attack in New York.  It is as if we actively supported people, who committed war crimes against a group that was not really responsible for our injury.  Which is, of course, exactly what the United States did then and continues to do.  The enemy of my enemy is my friend — in the shallow analysis, which conveniently pushes more insightful thinking aside.

 

 

President Obama’s miserable motive

 

I presume that the Obama Administration’s motive for leaving the secrecy surrounding this war crime in place is to defuse the potential that our extremist Muslim adversaries will recognize that we often act exactly as they do.

 

 

The problem with exhibiting hypocrisy and blatant dishonor in the conduct of war and geopolitics

 

A penchant for dishonor means that everyone else on the planet will eventually recognize that we are scumbags and cannot be believed.  That recognition makes our troops’ mission that much harder to accomplish.

 

If you were a relative or friend of those killed, would you lay down your weapons against the Lying Colossus from Far Away?

 

 

The moral? — What is done in America’s name reflects on each of us

 

The Bush II and Obama administrations soiled the United States’ traditional humanitarian values.

 

Secrecy, more often than not, intentionally masks evil.