US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies'

US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies'

www.guardian.co.uk

Twelve American soldiers face trial over an secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.

Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven other soldiers are accused of covering up the killings as well as a violent assault on a new recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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www.guardian.co.uk

Just posting this disgusting story here, it's being reported WAY more widely by overseas news sources (my friend in Belgium just emailed me about this story, which is how I found out). Why isn't this story TOP NEWS!?

I cannot even BEGIN to imagine the atrocities that WEREN'T reported! And we wonder why the rest of the world LOATHES us...

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

War is never pretty... It's sad they had to be there in the first place... Conditioned and basically brainwashed... I guess some people just snap and this is just an example of a squad going rogue instead of solo.

reply to post by bestideayet

I cannot even BEGIN to imagine the atrocities that WEREN'T reported! And we wonder why the rest of the world LOATHES us...

No. we should wonder why anyone in the world would not loathe those who would condone this. There is a big difference. Not to mention all the atrocities going on daily, like this, throughout the rest of the world that have nothing to do with the US.

Fingers are easier to carry around than heads. Funny, whenever an American does something wrong, it's the worst kind of crime ever commited. While I don't condone what they did, far worse things happen daily.....we just don't hear about them as often if an American isn't doing it. Just another America bashing thread.

Originally posted by adifferentbreed
Fingers are easier to carry around than heads. Funny, whenever an American does something wrong, it's the worst kind of crime ever commited. While I don't condone what they did, far worse things happen daily.....we just don't hear about them as often if an American isn't doing it. Just another America bashing thread.

I would consider this to be bigger than abu graib. This is a serial killer. I hope this never reaches the mainstream news because if it did the backlash would be huge.

Well, this is pretty bad, for sure. But the same thing happened in Vietnam. Sure that was a different type of conflict, but a conflict nonetheless. There's always a few rotten apples that break away from rules and regulations. Calling this an America bashing thread is also a bit much. It's simply a matter of fact that these were Americans, but that doesn't matter. Whoever is involved in war will do ugly things. If you don't like it, don't go to war.

Every nation did terrible things during wartime, a lot of those things slide by under reported. When events like these come up, it's important to talk about it simply because it highlights the idiocy of violence. Nut up and deal with it.

There is a great book I read a few months ago about a similar "kill team"- type situation that occurred during the Vietnam War.
The book is "Tiger Force" by Michael Sallah and Mitch Weiss- the book is a disturbing yet fascinating look at what the stress of war can make so-called "ordinary" people do.........

Originally posted by adifferentbreed
Fingers are easier to carry around than heads. Funny, whenever an American does something wrong, it's the worst kind of crime ever commited. While I don't condone what they did, far worse things happen daily.....we just don't hear about them as often if an American isn't doing it. Just another America bashing thread.

Stop being so oversensitive, im getting fed up of the whole "Your america bashing boohhoo"

It's disgusting..

The US are meant to be liberators, the country of the free, spreading democracy and peace across the world.

And here we have US soldiers murdering, yes MURDERING innocent civillians for there FINGERS to keep as trophies!!

It wasnt so long ago we had the video of the Apache gunner shooting at innocent, men, women and children.

The US needs to practice what it preaches.

Originally posted by adifferentbreed
Fingers are easier to carry around than heads. Funny, whenever an American does something wrong, it's the worst kind of crime ever commited. While I don't condone what they did, far worse things happen daily.....we just don't hear about them as often if an American isn't doing it. Just another America bashing thread.

"Far worse things happen daily"????? It's late at night here, but I'm struggling somewhat with trying to imagine what is far worse than being killed for sport by invading American psychopaths.

Please, this is not, never has been nor never will be anything other than barbaric sick twisted and horrendous. To the men (and their families) who were murdered, thats it, over. Kids and wives and family in desperate sorrow, never be the same again. So what could be far worse? If an Afghanistan killed Americans for sport? That would probably count as far worse in your eyes.

reply to post by Haydn_17


I totally agree with everything you said mate. And this is not about bashing America. The soldiers that committed these crimes must be severly punished, and so too their commanding officers.

America is suppose to keep the peace, but alas, their soldiers seem to be out of control. This story will be huge over there. And it will be used to show how evil America is, in their eyes. Thats a fact. And you guys know it.

There is another thread where the OP asked why people don't like America. They way the truely American patriots reply to these questions is the reason people might feel offended or put of by America. Instead of engaging in a debate about these topics, the history of America and what they have achieved will always be brought up. It will always be mentioned that there is places and countries more evil than America. So does that mean if you are not the Nr 1 evil guy, the guy in 2nd place is a saint?

VVV

reply to post by VreemdeVlieendeVoorwep


Agreed, star for you.

I can't believe some of you are actually trying to make excuses for this or to try and justify it.

You make me sick.

You know I feel it needs to be said. As horrible as these acts are, I think it is testament truly to something else overlooked and misconstrued.

The people, the largely Muslim people in these War Zones have truly suffered nearly unimaginable cruelties and deprevations, they seem to bear it all very stoicly, with a great deal of dignity all things considered.

We don't really hear them complain about these things, we don't really see them carry out acts of revenge or reprisals based on a you chopped the fingers off of a Muslim in Afghanistan from a Muslim in say London being so outraged by the act.

All they pretty much ask us is just not to burn their Quran and make fun of their Prophet in any way.

They seem to accept every other idignity better than any of us likely would. Heck some of us can't even stand to hear our nations be criticized.

It's kind of ironic though that while many of us have a real lack of respect for the war crimes and the war itself, that it doesn't always and in fact seldom translates into respect for the people themselves who have endured hundreds of thousands of casualties and similiar cruelties day after day, year after year for going on a decade.

People might want to consider that better.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Great post, unfoed

Originally posted by Haydn_17
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

Great post, unfoed

Hey thanks my friend, as you know, I never considered you a foe!

Which was kind of my point in the above post. It seems to me if Muslims in general were really the threat so many would like us to believe they all are, that we would have a whole lot of very angry Muslims outraged by stories like this. Outraged to the point that they would be demonstrating in the streets, committing acts of revenge and reprisals, but they don't, while surely they could.

They do take these things in stride. While many will bristle at the parallels one of the things that so impressed some Romans about Christianity is the way they stoicly met their deaths in the arenas with determined dignity.

So I am surprised more of us don't see that really about the only thing that upsets the average Muslim is disrespecting their Holy book, and their prophet.

War is Hell and I believe a lot of the coalition troops have truly good intentions. Many have joined the army for lack of any other employment opportunity or for the offer of a college education in return. So I don't think it's entirely fair to equate a few bad apples in the military, in a free for all war zone, with what I consider to be the bad policy of the war itself. The majority of our troops are much like the people in these nations, thrust into bad circumstances trying to do their best and make the best out of a truly difficult and often very violent situation.

Yet having said that, I don't think it is fair either to equate all Muslims with the bad acts of a few either.

I was born in America but have yet to find a spot on my body stamped "Made in America" I am a human being, first, foremost and always. It's engraved in my money, but I have yet to find a spot on my body that has engraved in it "In God we Trust". I am first and foremost a human being.

I am as similiar yet as individual as every other human being is, and as unique as we all are. We shove our soldiers into uniform, but we should not view them all in equal uniform ways. Even the military that puts them in uniform doesn't do that, they have different ranks and ensignias and medals and commentations to distinquish the difference in their contributions or lack thereof.

So I think it would be as much a mistake to look at our soldiers all in the same identical way, to let a few, and a bad few at that, create a uniform perception of them all. Just as I also think it's also a mistake to imagine all Muslims are the same and let a bad few create a uniform perception of them.

Thanks my friend.

I was reading up on this story yesterday on one of the major news websites...

Apparently one of the members of this unit was trying to be a "whistleblower" BUT this guy never actually saw most of the stuff happen. Just stories. He also said that everyone in the platoon was aware of the behavior and no one thought it was wrong. I find that hard to believe. You want to tell me 1 or 2 guys were just killing civilians at random ill believe you. YOu want to tell me an entire unit was murdering people for fun; i have some questions.

We have been told that this is a standard low level operating unit in the army right? I find this story strange in the least and i refuse to take it at face value. In a conflict where our guys are required to account for every shot fired and need to wait for permission to shoot back, I cant grasp where these guys would have an opportunity to committ these crimes.

Could this story be something else? Could this "Army Unit" be not an army unit? Could this be a set up?

disgusting savagery - firing squad for this scum.

Hay. What goes around comes around. About time someone brought terroristic tactics to the terrorists. The Afgan people are harboring terrorists. The civilian population is also the unreluctant enemy. If I were calling the shots one or two well placed nukes would be used, and we would have a new sandbox to play peacefully in.

Originally posted by p51mustang
disgusting savagery - firing squad for this scum.

firing squad? Nah Im thinking a heroes welcome and potentally a national monument.