Americans Forget; Afghans Do Not

In a fast moving media world the US public probably moved on long ago and has only vague and distant memories of the pictures of the “trophy” takers, while such things are burned into the minds of Afghan public.

One of six killed in Khost province. Photo: RAWA

(JAMESTOWN, RI) - The latest twist and turn in the Afghan misadventure takes the form of anti-American riots, protests, and bombs, by Afghans at Americans over the burning of the Koran by American military.

Mainstream media leads readers to believe that the uproar is solely because of the burning incident, however there is far more to it. While the American public appears to passively accept the “accidental” killing of Afghan kids, Afghans take this pretty seriously.

They love their kids as we do, yet we cannot seem to understand that a murdered child by America produces indescribable hatred. Last week we killed 8 more Afghan children resulting in hatred second to none. Afghans have had enough of the “mistakes” and “apologies” for killing innocent men, women, and children.

One might be able to understand killing 80 innocent people at a wedding party, or even another 40 killed at another wedding party in Kandahar, but the apologies and admissions of “mistakes” become unbelievable when there are at least 4 wedding parties attacked.

Pakistan Defence Network

Afghans however are closer to the deaths and they do not wonder. They now believe the incidents are not “accidents”, and the frequency of such actions does make one wonder. Could our military really be that stupid?

In addition to the burning of the Koran, readers should not forget other grievously offensive incidents resulting in deaths and apologies. Afghans were enraged by American soldiers urinating on the bodies of their dead, only to be told this was an act of young irresponsible soldiers who did not know better. That might wash with the US public, but not with Afghans. We tend to live in a vacuum and forget the relationship of one “incident” to another, while Afghans link them all together and draw conclusions that escape the US public.

For example, while we view the Koran burning as an isolated incident, Afghans link it to the murder of their children, and the urinating on the bodies of their deceased. We tend to separate those things while Afghans link them.

Remember the pictures and articles describing US military units that were exposed for taking body parts as trophies after murdering Afghans?

You may have forgotten, but Afghans have not.

In a break with protocol, the soldiers also took photographs of themselves celebrating their kill. In the photos, Cpl. Jeremy Morlock grins and gives a thumbs-up sign as he poses with Mudin’s body. Note that the boy’s right pinky finger appears to have been severed. Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs reportedly used a pair of razor-sharp medic’s shears to cut off the finger, which he presented to Holmes as a trophy for killing his first Afghan. Photo: The Oldspeak Journal

In a fast moving media world the US public probably moved on long ago and has only vague and distant memories of the pictures of the “trophy” takers, while such things are burned into the minds of Afghan public.

Nor did Afghans forget that only one soldier was sentenced while the others were given immunity. The one convicted soldier found guilty of murdering three civilians and then cutting off fingers for trophies, will be eligible for parole in 9 years.

While you may have forgotten the bombing which killed 70 civilians in Helmand province and two weeks later another 90 innocents were killed, 60 of whom were children, rest assured Afghans will never forget.

In addition to the murder of countless innocents, usually followed by denials from the US government until the facts prove them wrong, followed by the inevitable “apology” and admission of a “mistake”, there are other offenses that Afghans will never forget.

Thousands of civilians have been rounded up and kept in jail for years with no charges or accusations against them. Rumors of tortured innocents at the hands of their occupiers prevail among the Afghan population. Most know someone arrested or tortured, and among Afghans, the Bagram prison base has become the Abu Ghraib of Afghanistan.

All of this makes even less sense because there is no logical rational defense for the Afghan war.

Certainly in this Republican political season of debates and primaries, there has been no discussion of why we are in Afghanistan, a subject conspicuously absent in all the debates. Indeed Republicans are more interested in talking about birth control, the devil invading academia, and tax cuts for the rich.

The political silence surrounding the Afghan occupation is non partisan and Democrats are just as guilty as Republicans. They cannot talk about Afghanistan for there is no logical rational explanation for why we area there.

While there is no serious public discussion either in the media or by US politicians of what the US is doing in Afghanistan, the fire burns among Afghan people. Afghans simply know we should not be there killing their people.

While the US public is preoccupied with reality TV and superficial nonsense, the “ignorant” Afghan population is using all of the individual “mistakes” and “apologies” to form a mental chain of events that is now taking the form of hatred towards Americans.

It was General McChrystal who said: “"We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat," and who also created the concept of Insurgent Math when he stated: “for every innocent person you kill, you create 10 new enemies.” So readers beware; there is multiplication going on in Afghanistan, and at some point the American public will wake from its stupor and realize the effects of multiplication.

While we pat ourselves on the back as outstanding world citizens bringing good to the world, we fail to see the trail of 3 million dead in Southeast Asia and the one million dead we left in Iraq, and who knows what the final tally will be in Afghanistan, or the impending war with Iran. We should pause and reflect on these numbers; they are Hitler like.

Salem-News.com Writer Joe Clifford, lives in historic Jamestown, Rhode Island, and has contributed a number of articles relating to foreign policy to newspapers in the Rhode Island area for years.

He graduated from Providence College where he earned an undergraduate and graduate degree. After a lengthy career as a high school teacher he turned to the study of US foreign policy, and then to writing, as a means of expressing an alternative perspective. His reading and research on foreign policy is broad and extensive, especially as the policy relates to the Middle East. His interest in foreign policy was inspired by the American misadventure in Vietnam. You can write to Joe at this address: jc21131@gmail.com