FREE SPEECH ZONE | My Lai Again? In Afghanistan?

Is it 1968 My Lai all over again? American troops knocked down Afghan doors, handcuffed 8 school children, took them outside and executed them along 2 adults! This happened December 27, 2009, in Narang district, in eastern Kunar province. I hesitated writing about this hoping for an expose of a ruse.

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Not the case. The original story as reported by the staid Times of London on December 31, (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6971638.ece)_has been validated by a number of sources, some listed at the end of this story. The first reports were that the assassins were foreign forces, and they were later identified as Americans. They are presumed to be part of American Special Forces, the elite crew established and commanded by General McChrystal before his current assignment as overall troop commander. In addition to regular troops, there are many working on the black, very dirty, side of this war. Snatch and grab, assassinations, drone killings etc. are carried out by the Special Forces, CIA, Mossad and who knows what other guns for hire roam the countryside in our name.

This killing may have been in retaliation for the attack on a CIA combat base, an incident that has received continual revisions of the “truth.” The fact that the CIA is running combat missions is disturbing since they have been prohibited from doing this for decades.

In an unprecedented action, Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded the US hand over the gunmen who killed children.

The NY Times Asia edition did report on it on December 30 (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/world/asia/31afghan.html?_r=1) but not surprisingly the US mainstream media have not and probably will not report on this latest atrocity until forced to do so.

This appears to be a replay of the elements of the infamous My Lai massacre on March 16, 1968 when 347 to 504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, all of whom were civilians and a majority of whom were women, children, and elderly people were murdered by US Army troops. It was 1969 before the American media started reporting the story. Congressional “patriots” denounced the 3 soldiers that blew the whistle on the incident, calling then traitors. Ultimately one lowly lieutenant was sentenced to life in prison. He served 3 years. No higher officer was ever held accountable. Sadly this is the usual practice for high crimes. No one has been tried for incompetence or duplicity in 9/11. One person, a minor figure, was tried for the assassination of JFK.

The Vietnam war also saw Air America, a secret paramilitary operation of the CIA. How little has changed in 40 years. Operation Phoenix, a systematic village-by-village assassination program is another CIA legacy of Vietnam.

All war is dirty. All war causes “collateral damage” killing innocents. The indiscriminate bombing, unmanned drones, systematic starvation and other operations of our so-called civilized nation have killed over a million Iraqis and Afghans, most innocent civilians, many of them children, all in the name of “Freedom.”

At one time a free press focused light on these atrocities. Eisenhower insisted on photographing and filming Nazi death camps to tell the world and to hope that this kind of atrocity would never occur again. Today we turn our head and minds from the horrible truth. And we keep on spending tax dollars to buy even more tragedy.

Internet sources:

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff01042010.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7381479&mesg_id=7387124