Afghanistan Update

[nemo]

before I begin, a disclaimer.

I know this doesn't represent the attitude of all the soldiers out there, I know Americans aren't alone in doing this shit, I know most likely other allied troops are doing the same, I know that allied troops/aid workers aren't always given the best of treatment when kidknapped by the other side.  That all being said, what the fuck is this?  And what the fuck are we still doing in Afghanistan and Pakistan?

By the way, if you don't like blood, though the images are heavily pixellated and they've purposely chosen the least shocking, you maybe shouldn't click on these links.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,752310,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/21/afghanistan-trophy-photos-us-soldier

[polar]

makes me want to break open my abu ghraib folder and grab some hand lotion

i saw some of the worse ones on a german site, it's only a matter of time until we start cutting off body parts for trophies over in libya too

[sunnyp]

Just another day at the office in a war zone.

Imagine how many unreported and unexposed events occur daily in Afghanistan, and most likely still in Iraq. The Army, as an institution, conditions soldiers to do unspeakably bad things to people. However, when they're rumbled, they act as if they are humanitarian, and these sorts of things are the actions of a minority.

These photos would have made the Nazis proud. Disgusting.

[Rocket Queen]

But.... the Taliban are animals.... they don't believe in diplomatic mumbo jumbo talk.. they are mean and we need to kill them if not they will kill us. They hate us because we have air conditioning.

[nemo]

Just another day at the office in a war zone.

Imagine how many unreported and unexposed events occur daily in Afghanistan, and most likely still in Iraq. The Army, as an institution, conditions soldiers to do unspeakably bad things to people. However, when they're rumbled, they act as if they are humanitarian, and these sorts of things are the actions of a minority.

These photos would have made the Nazis proud. Disgusting.

Godwin'd in 2 posts.  Win.

You don't even have to look at the unreported events.  We get reports of unmanned attack drones killing groups of 10 or 20 civilians regularly, no-one bats an eye lid and our governments and media tell us it's all necessary and that we're still the good guys and anyway you shouldn't get too upset because it's just some brown guy people a few thousand miles away, and everyone knows they're only worth like a 10th of a white person.

[DrRedFox]

War will never be good. Both sides will do terrible things. The US to me is the less of the two evils here.

[Rocket Queen]

Godwin'd in 2 posts.  Win.

You don't even have to look at the unreported events.  We get reports of unmanned attack drones killing groups of 10 or 20 civilians regularly, no-one bats an eye lid and our governments and media tell us it's all necessary and that we're still the good guys and anyway you shouldn't get too upset because it's just some brown guy people a few thousand miles away, and everyone knows they're only worth like a 10th of a white person.

Ugh... exactly. Why do you kill people for reasons you cannot even comprehend?


"I just follow orders, sir. It is my duty."

[nemo]

War will never be good. Both sides will do terrible things. The US to me is the less of the two evils here.

Why?

I don't want to imply that they are the greater of two evils either, I just want to know on what basis you think the US is the lesser of two evils, other than that the news says so.

[polar]

Godwin'd in 2 posts.  Win.

good call, i usually work a reference into every conversation i have, even if i'm ordering lunch

we're still the good guys and anyway you shouldn't get too upset because it's just some brown guy people a few thousand miles away, and everyone knows they're only worth like a 10th of a white person.

pretty sure your numbers are a bit off, don't think you start getting kill credits until the upper 20's

[polar]

Why?

I don't want to imply that they are the greater of two evils either, I just want to know on what basis you think the US is the lesser of two evils, other than that the news says so.

one could make the argument that jews are better than muslims, since 7 have won a nobel prize vs 129 jews, and muslims are 20% of the world population vs .02% jews

[polar]

but then again obama got a nobel prize on the way in.... so not only does that change the number of muslims that have won, but also the merit of the prize itself

[Rocket Queen]

Yes Muslim Obama.... how can he kill his own kind.

[nemo]

I like the idea the tension that results from Obama apparently trying to destroy America by sneaking in an Islamic caliphate under the guise of pretending to be American while simultaneously trying to destroy Islam by sneaking in an American hegemonical military/political assualt under the guise of pretending to be a Muslim.

As the world's first suspected triple agent, I do at times wonder who he's actually working for...

[DrRedFox]

Why?

I don't want to imply that they are the greater of two evils either, I just want to know on what basis you think the US is the lesser of two evils, other than that the news says so.

We usually don't start wars. Once someone attacks us and we declare war its dumb how instead of trying to be better than them we cause more destruction. What I just typed pretty goes with how Japan attacked us on December 7th. Instead of being the better nation, the US made the dumb mistake of nuking Hiroshima. Lets now look at 9/11. We should've declared war on Saudi Arabia since most of the hijackers were from their.

[Rocket Queen]

We usually don't start wars.

[DrRedFox]

Yeah I know Obama was an idiot for calling a no fly zone on Libya.

Every major country in the world has done something horrible to add.

[nemo]

We usually don't start wars. Once someone attacks us and we declare war its dumb how instead of trying to be better than them we cause more destruction. What I just typed pretty goes with how Japan attacked us on December 7th. Instead of being the better nation, the US made the dumb mistake of nuking Hiroshima. Lets now look at 9/11. We should've declared war on Saudi Arabia since most of the hijackers were from their.

How do you think the war in Afghanistan started?  Or the war in Iraq?  Or what's happening in Libya?  Or, well, how far back do you want me to go?  Perhaps you could tell me the last time another country declared war on America and it was necessary to fight out of self defence?

I was trying to say that America weren't the worse of two evils in conflict, you seem to be going out of your way to show me that they are.

[mooney]

I saw these pics yesterday i think. i think my lack of shock or surprise - and probably many others' too - is quite telling.

Speaking of Afghanistan, Mark Curtis has done a brilliant document on it for War on Want here (opens as a kind of internet PDF thing):

http://markcurtis.info/  (for some reason i cant atm link directly to it but in this page, go to the heading "the great game..." (second article down) and click the "new report for war on want".

We usually don't start wars. Once someone attacks us and we declare war its dumb how instead of trying to be better than them we cause more destruction. What I just typed pretty goes with how Japan attacked us on December 7th. Instead of being the better nation, the US made the dumb mistake of nuking Hiroshima. Lets now look at 9/11. We should've declared war on Saudi Arabia since most of the hijackers were from their.

When did your history of your own country begin exactly? 2 hours ago? Your opening line is a tremendous piece of work. Truly outstanding.

Yeah I know Obama was an idiot for calling a no fly zone on Libya.

Every major country in the world has done something horrible to add.

They asked for a no flly zone. Nothing more. And so what is other countries do bad things? You're not responsible for their actions, just your own. Pointing the finger is no justification at all for extreme and continuous acts of violence (mostly against poor, impoverished countries), which is a UK and US specialty.

[mooney]

i know right.

do you actually have anything to say or not?

[polar]

do you actually have anything to say or not?

mooney if you're looking for an argument, you're welcome to pick up the thread about capitalism.  you kinda bugged out

[mooney]

mooney if you're looking for an argument, you're welcome to pick up the thread about capitalism.  you kinda bugged out

well no one seemed to budge from their positions, it kinda died a death. Plus i was attempting to write an essay at the time - which i've still to do. It's also 1.47am right now. I'll try and give those Friedman videos a watch at some point.

[nemo]

If anyone's wondering I removed a few posts that were just people writing 2 word insults and responses to them back and forth because they were kinda getting in the way of the discussion.  Hence mooney did not actually invent a quote from someone else.

[2NaFish]

As the world's first suspected triple agent, I do at times wonder who he's actually working for...

We usually don't start wars.

Do you really believe that?