The scene was one of horror, with shocked men holding their heads in sorrow and women shrieking in rage and anger. Bodies were strewn about. It was yet another incident in the ongoing war of terror … not the bombing in the Moscow airport, which we are allowed to know about, but an American bombing of Afghan civilians, which we are not allowed to know about.
Since The Pentagon does not do body counts, we do not know the death toll. I heard the words of the interpreter – survivors expressed their outrage at the American invaders, wanting only that we go home. Given a choice between Taliban and Americans, they choose … the one that does not drop bombs on them.
I watched that report last night on Al Jazeera. We are conditioned, of course, and as always, to automatically disbelieve anything said about us by those characterized as enemies. So even though the report was aired on Link TV here in the home of the brave, it will not be noted elsewhere. Only those of us with minds freed up a bit will lend it any credence. The rest will not even see it, and so will be spared the resulting cognitive dissonance.
Will there ever be another Nuremberg? Will state-sanctioned murderers ever again be brought to justice? I doubt it, at least not in my lifetime. Far from being brought to justice, one of them recently received the Republican presidential nomination. He is some kind of “hero” because the people he dropped bombs on imprisoned him and (gasp!) possibly even mistreated him.
I am not a pacifist. I believe in the necessity of self defense, and just war. I want to be on the “just” side of the conflicts, those engaged in self-defense. They are the ones who do not have the stars and stripes on their uniforms.
Piece of Mindful 
Here’s some self defense-getting rid of road side bombers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3SaZYuTbX8&feature=player_embedded
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Wow! Bonerville. Personal validation for you?
I don’t know that you grasp this, Swede, but when we invade someone’s country, they get to fight back. If they want to use roadside bombs to counter our military hardware, it’s OK.
It’s warfare, on our side aggressive war, a crime, on their side self-defense, or just war.
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Cool video.
That was one of the more disappointing things about shelling the NVA and the VC. My ship fired over 16,000 rounds of 5-inch HE, Willie Peter, and VT frag, but I never saw where one of them hit. The target was always over a hill and eight or nine miles away.
Now, with all this high tech surveillance, you can actually see the damage in real time. Great stuff!
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Swede,
Please give me your address. I want to drop over and occupy your front lawn – just for a few years. Or, if I find you unable to phycally stop me, maybe your kitchen or livingroom would be okay. Okay? I speak english, so the culture shock should be far less than most other occupations. Oh, and please note: If you resist, I will “self-defend” with deadly force until you, your family, your village, and your country is unrecognizable. I’m looking forward to meeting you. Have a nice day.
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High ground east of Billings.
But beware-got me some 30 round mags and a I-phone.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/25/targeting-taliban-iphone-app/
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on our side aggressive war…, on their side self-defense
Is it this cut and dried? If the Afghanis are allowing their country to be used as a staging ground for attacks on the U.S., it would seem we could claim some of the self defense title.
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You are entering two areas: One, credibility of U.S. claims about such staging, and two, disproportionate response.
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Likewise, what is the credibility of the dissident narrative, and is cheer-leading for the purported enemy a proportionate response?
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Mere designation as a people in a foreign country as my “enemy” does not motivate me to want to kill them. You? Remember, if we do nothing, nobody dies. We instigated the attack. We said we had good reasons. I don’t believe them. You do, apparently.
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This is not a “mere designation” of a people, but interesting that you cast it in those terms.
The segment of the Afghans that support Al Queda and the Taliban are in some ways our enemy, but not to the extent that we should target them. That they suffer blowback from military operations is unfortunate, but the days of combatants meeting on a field of battle seem to be gone.
if we do nothing, nobody dies.
Sounds like Bill Clinton’s policy towards Al Queda.
I’m not sure for what you would fight. You pointedly have little national or ethnic sentiment, and very little regional sentiment. I suppose you would fight for family and friends, but you seem more interested in the struggles of others. I imagine you tramping through the jungles of Honduras, shooting the multitudes of CIA operatives that infest the area.
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“Blowback” is what happens to us in return for what we have done to others, ala 9/11. You misuse the term. That is, had we not attacked first, there would have been no 9/11 as officially recorded.
Al Qaeda hardly exists except has a bugaboo to motive public support for foreign aggression.
The idea that Afghans are suffering unfortunate fallout from military operations completely bypasses the need to justify those operations. How convenient for your thought processes to skip that step.
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Again the two step process:
1) Should we do something to counter the threat from Islamic terrorism? I’d say the consensus is yes.
2) What methods should we use? There are more misgivings here: predator drone strikes on wedding parties are highly uncool. Because we botch this second part doesn’t negate the first.
Instead of blowback, I was initially going to say Afghan civilians suffer collateral damage, but that term carries baggage. You know what I mean.
For you to countenance the notion that 9/11 is some kind of righteous retribution for past American foreign policy strikes me as your way of personally coming to terms with the tragedy. There is more to it, such as the pathology of Islam mixed with modern technology. We have here the existential conflict between Islam and the West becoming concrete. You seem too anxious to give Islam the benefit of the doubt.
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