Murder Is Not an Anomaly in War by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
March 19, 2012

The war in Afghanistan—where the enemy is elusive and rarely seen, where the cultural and linguistic disconnect makes every trip outside the wire a visit to hostile territory, where it is clear that you are losing despite the vast industrial killing machine at your disposal—feeds the culture of atrocity. The fear and stress, the anger and hatred, reduce all Afghans to the enemy, and this includes women, children and the elderly. Civilians and combatants merge into one detested nameless, faceless mass. The psychological leap to murder is short. And murder happens every day in Afghanistan. It happens in drone strikes, artillery bombardments, airstrikes, missile attacks and the withering suppressing fire unleashed in villages from belt-fed machine guns.

Military attacks like these in civilian areas make discussions of human rights an absurdity. Robert Bales, a U.S. Army staff sergeant who allegedly killed 16 civilians in two Afghan villages, including nine children, is not an anomaly.

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via Truthdig

Copyright © 2012 Truthdig

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Chris Hedges spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. His latest books are Death of the Liberal Class, and The World as It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress.

From the archives:

Rick Rozoff: U.S. Lied About Number Of Soldiers In Afghan Massacre + Afghan War, From Collateral Damage To Targeted Killing Of Civilians

Peace Groups Call For U.S. Withdrawal After Army Sergeant Kills 16 Civilians in Afghanistan

Rick Rozoff: NATO vs The 1st Amendment + Qur’an burning by US led troops in Afghanistan monstrous blasphemy

Chris Hedges: War gives Meaning

War Is Sin by Chris Hedges

The Disease of Permanent War by Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges: War is a Force that Gives us Meaning (2004; must-see; transcript)

Afghanistan on Dandelion Salad