by Ross Caputi

The death of innocent civilians is nothing new in Afghanistan, but these 16 victims, nine of whom were children, were allegedly murdered by a rogue soldier, rather than the usual killers – drone attacks, air strikes and stray bullets. This incident has elicited rage among Afghans and westerners alike. But why are westerners not equally outraged when drone attacks kill entire families?US army soldiers in Panjwai district, Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, where American troops have been fighing since 2001.

by Kathleen Barry

‘Are our soldiers seeing too much combat?’ as one retired military general asked after the most recent Afghan massacre of 16 civilians. How much combat – organized and spontaneous killing, destruction – is too much? Enough so that US killing in Afghanistan is just short of being caught massacring civilians? Enough so that anyone any soldier considers a threat for any reason can still be killed just in case they might pose a danger? By now Americans are used to such reports, most turning the other way either because they don’t care or because they feel impotent to make change, both reasons leaving the US military virtually untouched while one investigation and court judgment after another exonerates the murders.

by Stephen Lendman   

In all US war theaters, troops commit unspeakable atrocities. Trained to dehumanize enemies, their mission involves killing, destruction, and much more.

Local treasures are looted. Women are raped. Civilians are treated like combatants. Children are indiscriminately harmed like adults. Prisoners are tortured. Mutilations are common. Crimes of war and against humanity are institutionalized. It's all in a day's work like taking out the garbage.

Viciousness defines US wars. No crime's too great to commit. Human lives are valueless. Only winning matters, then on to the next war. Lies, deception, unspeakable brutality, and cover-up define them.

Issued by Afghans for Peace, March 12, 2012:

It is a quiet night in the village of Panjwai, Kandahar. Children are sleeping next to their mothers in simple mud homes. The quiet night is disturbed by a sudden loud explosion. A terrorist has entered one of the homes. He sprays a rain of bullets on the unsuspecting children and mother. He is on a killing rampage, as his bullets splatter the children’s blood on the walls and floor. He does not even spare the two year old clinging on to his mother for dear life. He then proceeds to burning the deceased bodies by pouring chemicals on them. This terrorist does not wear a black turban on his head nor a beard on his face. Instead he wears US military fatigues with the American flag sewn next to his US staff sergeant badge.

From KBOO - Portland, March 8, 2012

Malalai Joya is a courageous voice in one of the most difficult places to live in the world. The youngest person to ever be elected to the Parliament of Afghanistan, she has dedicated her life to ending the rule of warlords and war criminals and the U.S. Occupation that props them up. She has survived 5 assassination attempts as she continues to speak out about the the real enemies of peace in her country. In this KBOO exclusive interview Ms. Joya addresses a wide range of issues, from the living conditions faced by the average Afghan, the Talibanization of the Afghan Government, conditions face by women today and much more!

Listen now

by Nima Shirazi   

"Great shapes like big machines rose out of the dimness, and cast grotesque black shadows, in which dim spectral Morlocks sheltered from the glare...there was an altogether new element in the sickening quality of the Morlocks — a something inhuman and malign...I wondered vaguely what foul villainy it might be that the Morlocks did under the new moon."

- H.G. Wells, The Time Machine, 1895

Democracy Now, March 12, 2012:

The anger provoked by the U.S. soldier’s attack on 16 Afghan civilians comes amidst outrage over civilian deaths from U.S. drone strikes and a growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Hundreds of Afghan children die daily from hunger even as the United States spends some $2 billion a month on maintaining its occupation. We speak with Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, who has just returned from Afghanistan to stand trial for her role in a protest at a U.S. base over the use of drones. "When is the United States going to understand the rage and the antagonism felt by civilians who have borne year after year after year of attacks — unprovoked and uncaused attacks against civilians — as the United States has used its occupation to try to dictate the future of people in Afghanistan?" Kelly asks.

by Dennis Loo

Reporting on its website tonight, The New York Times stated: “Stalking from home to home, a United States Army sergeant methodically killed at least 16 civilians, 9 of them children, in a rural stretch of southern Afghanistan [in Kandahar Province] early on Sunday [March 11, 2012].”

After murdering these innocents one by one, this U.S. soldier - many Afghan witnesses, including one whose father was killed, saw several U.S. soldiers involved in the attack - then covered his/their victims with a blanket and set them afire.

“This incident is tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.

Yet another example of the “exceptional character of our military” and its extraordinary “respect” for the Afghan people – one of a whole string of incidents that show the U.S. high regard for the people whose country it has been occupying for more than ten years in the longest war in U.S. history (not counting its wars on Native Americans).

by Emma Kaplan

Today when I went to read my email, I saw on my front home page "U.S. Soldier held in shooting rampage that killed 16 Afghans, officials say. 

I feel disgusted. I am disgusted because I know that were probably women and children who were killed.I know that these were people who posed no threat and were probably unarmed.  I know that after the kicking down of doors and the terrifying screams of the children, there is nothing left that documents the horror except a trail of blood, a pile of bodies and eternal nightmares for those who are still living.

I click on the link  to the article.

by Kevin Gosztola 

A Pentagon commander announced a few days ago that the US has special forces teams in Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and, more significantly, India.

BBC News reports there are teams currently “deployed to help India with their counter-terrorism” operations, according to US Pacific Command Commander Admiral Robert Willard.

Willard says the US and India are working to “contain” a Pakistan-based militant group known as Lashkar-e-Taiba, that is believed to be responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

March 1st, 2012 "Information Clearing House" --- Fazillah, age 25, lives in Maidan Shar, the central city of Afghanistan's Wardak province. She married about six years ago, and gave birth to a son, Aymal, who just turned five without a father. Fazillah tells her son, Aymal, that his father was killed by an American bomber plane, remote-controlled by computer.

That July, in 2007, Aymal's father was sitting in a garden with four other men. A weaponized drone, what we used to call an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or UAV, was flying, unseen, overhead, and fired missiles into the garden, killing all five men.