One For Their Back Pocket

If Al Qaeda seized control of American cities and streets after 9/11, the uproar and backlash would be quick and excruciatingly severe. Though, let’s be honest, it would never even get that far.

So why are other countries supposed to sit back and accept it when we are the perpetrators?

While the exact count is unknown, it has been estimated that anywhere from 150,000, up to over a million civilians have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. While, not all of these are directly caused by U.S./NATO forces,  too many have been the result of deliberate or reckless actions at the hands of our U.S. Military.

Just today, it has been reported, that a U.S. soldier stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan murdered 16 civilians and torched their bodies. This, while the repercussions are still being felt from Quran burnings in the country. And to find other examples, you don’t have to go too far back through news archives to discover the last time innocent Afghanis or Iraqis have been killed and/or desecrated by U.S. soldiers.

These events are unfortunate and result in perpetuating violence in the region. The Taliban has already promised to seek retribution for the murders, and there is sure to be resistance among the general population, as well. However, there is another danger at play. While the Taliban might be ingenuously outraged by a civilian massacre carried out by a U.S. soldier (no one likes competition), it also gives them something to put in their back pocket: a recruiting tool.

What better way to recruit members for your cause, than have to have your enemy kill innocent villagers in cold blood.

I understand that one man doesn’t represent a military of 1.5 million, or a country of over 300 million. However, tell that to a neighborhood of people who just lost sixteen family members to a man sporting a U.S. flag on his uniform. That, in combination with the fact, that these type of occurrences have happened before, and will likely happen again in the future, given our presence in the region, and you have a pretty well-justified argument for anti-American sentiment. (Blowback, anyone?)

Hey, it’s not like Americans have much room to talk on that front. After all, we started wars in two countries and another against a religion of over one billion, for the actions of nineteen.

Regardless, of whether or not this tragedy was carried out by a lone actor, or many, it brings us back to the question: What are we still doing there?           Short answer: More harm than good.

We are sure to see development and debate on this story in coming days.

Adding to the Terror

The below is a conversation I had via Facebook regarding a link about night raids in Afghanistan. The conversation took place between me and a US soldier.

The Middle East Massacre

On my way into work this morning, I was listening to a BBC Newshour segment on a man’s account of a night raid in Afghanistan. My initial thought was, ‘This is never a story you’d hear on any mainstream American news outlet”. My second thought was, ‘Wow, and we wonder why “these people” “hate” us?’

At the Tea Party Debate on September 12th, Ron Paul was attacked by Rick Santorum for writing  this article. In a nutshell, Ron Paul explains that the people in the Middle East who want to attack us do not want to do so because we are free, democratic, prosperous, or even predominantly a “Christian nation”; they want to attack us because we are over there occupying their land and meddling in their affairs. The Tea Party Debate crowd booed Ron Paul as he continued to defend his viewpoint.

Some people might wonder how these statements are even controversial. The term “blowback” was coined by the CIA and the CIA has admitted that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were a result of our own foreign policies. So how is this even disputed? How has it become “un-American” to question the government’s foreign policies and how they affect us worldwide? Does the MSM (mainstream media) keep us that far removed from what is happening over there on the ground? Or are we that desensitized to the Muslim region that we just don’t care?

The man who BBC profiled this morning spoke of the many night raids that the American troops conduct. Even though the troops killed two members of his family, a 12-year-old girl, both of his neighbors, and many others, he didn’t ask the government to stop–he just pleaded that the U.S. provide warning, like in the form of an announcement at a local Mosque, ahead of time. Why? Because many Afghanis irrigate their crops at night; because they don’t have indoor restroom facilities, so they must leave their houses to relieve themselves; because just like anyone else in the world, people still carry on at night.

This is one story. These tragic events happen daily for the civilians of this region. Take for instance, this story, where troops “executed” 10 Iraqis, including an elderly woman and an infant. Or this one, where troops killed Afghani men for “sport”. In 2006, in Iraq alone, the civilian death toll was 655,000. The numbers across the region are in the millions now.

My goal here is not to vilify American Troops. Like any given large population, you are going to have your “bad apples”. The majority of troops are good people who want to make a living serving their country. What’s concerning to me is our Middle Eastern foreign policy, but most importantly, public opinion regarding these policies. The U.S. has more civilian blood on its hands than any Extremist ever could, and probably ever will. Since our presence in the Middle East, the Taliban has doubled. These people were safer without us there (and so were we). What I can’t understand, is how pointing out these figures and making logical deductions regarding American sentiment in the Middle East, is controversial?

Like Ron Paul said in his article, put yourselves in these people’s shoes for one moment. Imagine, that as a sovereign nation, another “big kid on the block”, let’s say China or Russia, send hundreds of thousands of troops over our borders. They start bombing our streets and turning our neighborhoods into war zones. Women and children are killed, sometimes on “accident”, sometimes on purpose. Because of this, there is an insurgence of violence and radicalization.

….Ask yourselves, how would you feel about China or Russia? What would you want to do to them? Maybe you would become a “radical” yourself.

The examples above are just some of the reasons America isn’t popular in the Middle East. There are others, like propping up dictators, our blind support for Israel, or imposing sanctions that contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. Knowing this, how can you not understand “their” position on America? Instead of looking at external factors for these threats, we need to start looking inward…