Fatal War Crimes

Once again, the U.S. government is apologizing to Afghanistan. This time it’s because in 2010 U.S. soldiers desecrated the bodies of Afghan suicide bombers. Photos of the act were released by the American newspaper the Los Angeles Times. Also, a few weeks ago, a lone U.S. soldier went on a killing spree in an Afghan village, shooting 17 Afghans while they slept. The victims included nine children. Previously, American soldiers were filmed urinating on the bodies of enemy soldiers, and before that, Americans mistakenly burned copies of the Quran at a military base in Afghanistan, an act that led to week-long riots.

The acts were all those of individuals. U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was correct when he commented on the latest incident, saying, “This is war, and I know that war is ugly, and it’s violent. And I know that young people sometimes caught up in the moment make some very foolish decisions.”

But there remains the disturbing fact that those calling themselves “liberators” in Afghanistan continue to commit barbaric acts. The question is: Why?

Panetta already addressed the basic cause. War is a mindless, brutalizing machine. The longer a war lasts, the more effect it has on individuals. American soldiers have been in Afghanistan now for more than 10 years, waging a war of attrition they cannot win. At the same time, support for this war back home has dramatically sunk to an all-time low. The bottom line is, most soldiers in Afghanistan can’t understand why they’re fighting there. That undermines morale.

It’s remarkable that the number of such scandals seems to be increasing the closer the United States gets to withdrawal. The motto seems to be: There’s nothing to win here so let’s really go wild and give all our hatreds free rein. Let the monster of war have one last gruesome feast before the lights are turned off.

The Americans and the entire Western world still have a lot more to lose in Afghanistan. The 2014 date decided for withdrawal is right, but it is in the West’s interest that Afghanistan remain an ally after that date because the country is geostrategically extremely important. It borders on natural resource-rich Central Asia, Iran and Pakistan and is thus important to India as well.

The West cannot win this war but can’t afford to lose Afghanistan. The U.S. government is currently negotiating with Afghanistan to maintain military installations there past 2014. The crimes committed by American soldiers won’t make those negotiations any easier.

Should scandals of this magnitude continue or increase, the fear will be real that NATO will depart the country much as the Soviets did in 1989: hated and despised by the Afghan people.