12 September 2010
Twelve soldiers have recently been charged with a variety of crimes in connection with the killing and cover up of Afghan civilians . Even more heinous, the offenders mutilated the corpses of their victims and took with them gruesome souvenirs.
Five soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division brigade are facing murder charges, while the other seven soldiers face charges of participating in a cover up. According to military documents, the men participated in throwing grenades and shooting at Afghan civilians. If the attacks resulted in casualties, the soldiers would sometimes take body parts of their victims as souvenirs. Some of these souvenirs included leg bones, finger bones, and even a tooth.
As an American citizen, I am outraged by the soldiers' careless disregard of human life. Not only does it reflect on them as horrible people, but their behavior in this time of war reflects on our country poorly. I believe that ignorance has once again reared its ugly head, as it did at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2004, where soldiers were allegedly abusing the Iraqi prisoners of war. The audacity of the soldiers to think that their quest for "kicks and giggles" was worth a civilian's life is ridiculous to me. I try to understand the soldiers' behavior by empathizing with their situation, because they are in war and probably have seen the "enemy" do terrible things, but I then go back to the thousands of other soldiers who are in a similar situation and are doing their best to handle it maturely.
1 comment:
It is certainly appalling that our soldiers, or any soldiers for that matter, would conduct in this manner. From a country which strives to be the biggest and the best in the world, these soldiers have not behaved in a dignified way that would reflect well on us. This is a story that exhibits the darker side of US occupation in Afghanistan and provides a compassionate view of the Afghan people. I feel great sorrow for those victims and their families, who lost someone they loved for the entertainment of some ignorant soldiers.
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