In a statement released by Colonel Thomas Collins, the US Army, which is currently preparing a court martial to try a total of 12 suspects in connection with the killings, apologized for the suffering the photos have caused. The actions depicted in the photos, the statement read, are "repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States."Ever time "an atrocity" is committed in one of our wars, we get the same official response. I put the phrase in quotation marks because it is a kind of minimizing euphemism, a figure of speech that redirects the mind by way of false perspective. The atrocities are our wars; these horrors merely their constituent parts. "The actions depicted in the photos" are gruesome to be sure, but no more gruesome than the airstrikes carried out every single day. The sin is a sin against decorum, a failure of form. When you have mutilated a village, you must don a sober tie and American flag lapel pin and announce to the teevee that you deeply regret the loss of civilian life, or, better yet, deny that anyone was killed but the Lord of Hell and his demonic disciples themselves, although of course you will direct the committee to form a board to order an inquiry into the nature of the investigation of the allegations of the accusations. The crime is not killing an Afghan but posing tastelessly with the corpse. The soldiers are being court-martialed for wearing white shoes before Memorial Day.
The suspected perpetrators are part of a group of US soldiers accused of several killings. Their court martials are expected to start soon. The photos, the army statement said, stand "in stark contrast to the discipline, professionalism and respect that have characterized our soldiers' performance during nearly 10 years of sustained operations."
-Der Spiegel
As usual, the spokescreatures confirm as much. "'The images have an enormous potential here in Afghanistan,' one NATO general told SPIEGEL ONLINE." The images. Ohmigod how will the Afghans react when they find out what we are doing to them?
19 comments:
Top form, this one.
This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!
Even people you're killing have perceptions of you that can be managed. Notice how everyone is apologizing for the images or their effects first, and the actual murders a distant second.
I think the war crimes of Yank soldiers are a bigger secret inside the U.S. than outside.
There's an even better reason to put quote marks around "atrocity". Haditha, anyone?
they're fighting for our freedoms.
When the Afghanis find out that the US military has been using cameras in their country they're not going to be please.
Fucking Bradley Manning, man. Putting all those lives in jeopardy.
I'd fuck Bradley Manning EVEN if it means putting lives in danger! I gots that Manning Fever! Go Colts!
This is what happens when you fuck Bradley Manning in the ass!
Oh please.
While it is obvious that the killing itself must be considered the greatest 'atrocity', can we not still reserve a special place in hell for those who do it gleefully?
Or are you really saying that, hell, if we are killing them, we might as well go whole-hog and drag through the central market behind the chariot too.
Sorry, hell is not taking reservations at the moment. All the spots are taken up for those who kill in the name of geopolitical strategy thousands of miles from the actual site of the murders.
The heads. You're looking at the heads. I, uh – sometimes he goes too far, you know – he's the first one to admit it!
I can't get past the names.
The guy who confessed to murdering these people and then posing with the bodies is named Jeremy Morlock, and now Colonel Tom Collins enters the mix to calm things down.
Christopher---
There's a bizarro-world logic to it all, as you suggest. Come to think of it, what name geopolitically speaking besides Afghanis better describes Morlock's decedents than "Eloi"? Talk about a clash of civilizations.
"Can we not still reserve a special place in hell for those who do it gleefully?"
Because the expressed, obvious anguish of GI's destroying a village would make the nightly news that much more tolerable
GODDAMIT! (to quote Walter...) i don't expect GI's sent around the world to not commit, um, bad things...i just expect a HIGHER CALIBRE OF LIE from officialdom defending them! lie to me bigger/better/faster/stronger/deeper/harder!
i remain yours, the eternally disappointed.
Willard: "Shit...charging a man with murder in this place is like handing out speeding tickets in the Indy 500" - Apocalypse Now
"Because the expressed, obvious anguish of GI's destroying a village would make the nightly news that much more tolerable"
Because those are the only two options, right:
a) Kill gleefully and advertise this glee or,
b) Kill gleefully but lie about it.
No option c) available . . .
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