Much has been written about the ongoing “war against terrorism”. We have all heard the phrase, the clash of civilizations and have been spoon fed the idealistic expectations of the architects of these two campaigns, one in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan for ten years. Periodic sit-reps (situation reports) have been delivered by Politicians and General Grade Officers alike and even the retired community of hopeful sycophantic, legacy building idealists have not been able to contain their zeal to delve into the world of fantasy and declare our misadventures as humane.
The supporters of these misguided and unconstitutional nation building schemes are so invested in their own tripe that they cannot bring themselves to accept the glaring truth. To add insult to injury, they see the world through the eyes of the enemy and the enemy’s familial environment rather than through the eyes of the American population without whom they would not have jobs.
The stories allowed to come out of Afghanistan are largely tainted if not fabricated these days with the sole intent of keeping an increasingly frustrated American public from a full scale revolt.
Not fabricated you say? Case in point; L/Cpl Edward J. Dycus USMC who was murdered by an Afghan “partner” while standing guard. The problem is, this young Marine’s death was not first reported as another act of treachery by our “noble” Afghan partners, but was attributed to death during combat operations in Afghanistan. What acceptable reason can there be for withholding this kind of information from the American public? In fact, who could possibly justify lying about any of the deaths of our Warriors at the hands of the unscrupulous, blood-lusting 7th century hordes of that forsaken land unless it is to present a picture of that culture and this military operation there as something other than what it is; an unmitigated disaster!
And what ever happened to Lieutenant Colonel Davis USA, who presented a scathing 84 page analysis of the Afghanistan debacle which accuses our political and military leaders of deceiving the American public about the “progress” in Afghanistan. He made news for about three days and, curiously, has not been heard from since.
How about the questionable actions of Lt Col Homiak as detailed by Diana West nearly two weeks ago? A request for an investigation into his action/non-action which jeopardized the lives of a Marine Corps Patrol on June 6th, 2011 continues to languish in the halls of those who compelled the Marines in that patrol to be placed in harm’s way to begin with. Do you suppose those fine gentlemen and women in the Capital truly understand the ramifications of their silence for those continuing to patrol under the confining attributes of COIN doctrine?
Which leads us to the two events which have captured the attention of the world and certainly our legislative and executive branches in recent weeks; The inadvertent burning of Korans which were being used as notebooks by EPW’s to communicate with one another and the killing of Afghan civilians, Men, Women and Children allegedly by a Staff Sergeant in the Army.
The incessant apologies, the promises of prosecutorial retribution, the tolerance of Afghan rioting and accompanying murder of our American Warriors for the burning of copies of the Koran as well as our “understanding” of Afghan hatred for us, presumably because of these acts has muted the whimpers of our leadership over the 3 year campaign of murder by our Afghan “partners” of our Warriors.
This double standard would be considered unacceptable if all of the players were American, committing these acts on American soil. There would be a general outcry from the public for fairness and justice for all. The media would fill there dockets with rhetoric and anecdotal evidence of political malfeasance while insisting that one party or the other was simply playing to their electorate at the cost of another, unfortunate segment of society.
And yet, because these acts occurred on foreign soil and the participants wear uniforms, the media takes the skewed message from the political sphere and propagates it through their various venues like some kind of perverted gospel of truth.
While I certainly do not condone the killing of women and children – by anyone, in any culture, in any country, on any continent, I never-the-less do not see these murders as more reprehensible than the campaign of murder of our forces by those they are forced to train with, which has gone almost unreported.
While I accept the political sphere apologizing for the killing of women and children in Afghanistan, I repudiate the deafening silence by those same political “leaders” when it comes to the murder of our forces by the 7th century hordes of Afghanistan – those our “leadership” insists are “our friends”.
It is important that the American public remind our politicians of something they seem to forget; the Afghan Soldier and Afghan Policeman are not constructs in a game or implants from an alien race from Alpha Centauri. They are in fact a product of their society, their culture, their family, their religious ideology, their own personal vices, their own personal prejudices and hatred. In essence, they are Afghanistan. In the same way, our Warriors are a mirror of our cultural experience.
The difference is that while the alleged actions of the United States Army Staff Sergeant, in Afghanistan are in fact a singularity, the continuing actions of the Afghans our Warriors are forced to work with, are not.
And while our government has made it clear just how reprehensible they consider the alleged actions of that Army Staff Sergeant, they have been correspondingly silent when it comes to the murder of some 70 American, ISAF and NATO Warriors.
I for one, wonder just how this Staff Sergeant is going to fair in our now untrustworthy legal system. Will he be given a fair hearing? Will the bevy of experts who will most certainly be called be trounced under foot by a politically motivated prosecutorial team of lackeys answering to their masters in DC? Will he be treated with the same tolerance shown to Major Nidal Hasan who is certainly guilty of shooting 32, killing 13, American Soldiers while screaming Allahu Akbar, an entreaty to his god, Allah while doing so? Will the Staff Sergeant, accused of killing Afghans be seen as a monster while Nidal Hasan given deference due to his particular religious proclivity?
Is there a double standard in this government; deference for our ideologically motivated enemies, zero compassion for our over-stressed, over-deployed, lied to uniformed Service Members?
Is the American public going to, once again, reward the despicable behavior of our political leadership and their minions wearing stars by casting their precious votes in November for this administration and it’s perverted staff for yet another 4 years or is this American Society finally reaching the limits of it’s patience for the silence and intolerance shown for our Warriors?
Compassion should be universal. Standards should be just and uniform. American Leaders should show due concern for their citizenry – before they show it for the rest of the world!
Semper Fidelis;
John Bernard
