A May 14 night raid in the remote Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan continues to be a source of consternation for locals, most notably members of the family which lost nine members that evening to US troops.
But the US The US had initially said that only one person in the house, a suspected militant, was targeted, but quickly decided that every single person killed was a terrorist. So far no evidence has been provided to support that claim.
At the time the killing sparked a massive protest which itself led to the death of at least one civilian killed when local police opened fire on the crowd. The local security forces claimed they were not informed of the US raid.
Though Gen. Stanley McChrystal had at one point promised to end the practice of night raids, Pentagon officials have taken to defending not just the Nangarhar killings but the principle of raiding civilian homes in the middle of the night, claiming that in most cases, no shots are even fired.
But while only a handful of the hundreds of night raids have led to the deaths of large numbers of civilians, they have provided some of the ugliest storylines of the war, including the killing of two pregnant women in the mistaken raid of the home of a local policeman and then a failed coverup which attempted to blame the family for the killings.
Even when the raids go “peacefully,” they have sparked considerable resentment among the Afghan population, which still hasn’t come to terms with a permanent occupation in which foreign troops can raid their homes on flimsy pretexts with impunity.
Is it any wonder, that civilians do not accept a foreign power to have a self-declared right for such an armed night raid, and that it furthermore is a given, that it is the offending raiders that themselves (or their superiors – that need those men ) all by themselves can dictate what is right and wrong with their own actions?
In fact: Don't you need a premise of regarding IN ADVANCE those night attackers as generally superior beings to the local inhabitants?
Wjhat kind of person accepts that? Only the corrupt ones! So the regime they are building in Afghanistan, and Iraq, are like the Philippines (with over 100 years of american aided nation building) corrupt, and lying regimes. And that is EXACTLY the type of regime you need for an empire to have lasting control over foreign leaders. Big, lasting military bases for the next 50 years inside those countries. Where they should Not develop to follow their own judgments.
All that nonsense talk of rights and police order are for the home public to bring forth the tolerance for costs and illegalities, and disarm foreign countries' possible opposition to suddenly get American forces next door, with the CIA actively mingling into politics, with a nearby force to "better let them do it OR ELSE.".
The best hope for peace is probably , that the American population realize as hard facts, that the costs of foreign wars and occupations are MUCH MUCH bigger than any now-or-future economic or security gains for the general population, and that they realize they can NOT trust their own leaders in this subject AT ALL.
If not, things might turn nasty, with American tourists or businessmen becoming target all over the world. Because they TOO are harboring terrorists. That would turn business into such a dangerous affair abroad, that from that fact alone the NATURALLY DESIRED consequences in Americans acting as equal humans, might finally sink into the PROUD AND STUBBORN spider-killed heart of the nation.
That would last some generations, but meanwhile USA might regain it's peaceful productivity, and the world outside find a more peaceful and natural balance of its own. One where people can dwell in and enjoy truth, not needing artificial mental drugs to sink in.
Let's hope for serious and disastrous economic calamities befalling the next generation!. One in six qualifying for food stamps, like today, is a good beginning. Spin does not remove hunger.
Stop killing them over there and they'll stop trying to kill us over here!