'Photos Emerge of U.S. Soldiers Allegedly Posing With Dead Afghan Civilians'

this are just the pictures that get leaked, most likely going on a daily basis.

very cruel world we live in.

All the PR about this war being about democracy and human rights melts into thin air with these pictures of US soldiers posing with the dead and mutilated bodies of innocent Afghan civilians. Amongst those murdered was an innocent 15 year old boy.

As horrific as the behaviour of these individuals is, it's absolute nonsense to argue that it refutes the notion that human rights and democratic principles have not improved dramatically since the Coalition intervention in Afghanistan.

Under the Taliban, 15 year old boys were (and in some cases still are) whipped in the streets for being unable to grow facial hair. The 2001 invasion put stop to an impending genocide against Afghanistan's Hazara population by the Taliban. The Buddhas of Bamiyan (which the Taliban fanatically demolished because they were considered to be un-Islamic) are likely to be rebuilt in the near future.

Detailed focus on human rights abuses by U.S. soldiers, as awful as they are, seems to blind some people from the true horrors of the regimes the U.S. helped depose. The Abu Ghraib scandal, for example, was relatively a non-event compared to some of the atrocities that had occurred in that prison prior to 2003. People like the OP would rather present a snuff film, instead of rigorously tackling the question: why are we even aware of the fact that these abhorrent acts have taken place? Because the U.S. forces that operate in Afghanistan are held accountable by a free press, and conditions which allow focussed attention on such events. The Taliban, on the other hand, are not. We simply cannot know the extent of the carnage that they have caused in the past, and do currently in the areas in which they operate.

Just as well they are being put on trial for it as well as the men who tried to cover it up.

Oh really?



The men who tried to cover it up are otherwise known as NATO/US govt.

When the killings finally became public last summer, the Army moved aggressively to frame the incidents as the work of a "rogue unit" operating completely on its own, without the knowledge of its superiors.

Even before the war crimes became public, the Pentagon went to extraordinary measures to suppress the photos – an effort that reached the highest levels of both governments.

Investigators in Afghanistan searched the hard drives and confiscated the computers of more than a dozen soldiers, ordering them to delete any provocative images

The Pentagon's top command, rather than addressing the morale problems, actually held up the brigade as a media-worthy example of progress in the war.





So far, though, no officers or senior officials have been charged in either the murders or the cover-up.

So you see only the ****s who did those crimes have been prosecuted. Nothing happened to the rest who were complacent.





When I read that article I just kept thinking 'this is Vietnam all over again'. American soldiers who are ****ed in the head go around killing innocents when a squad member dies or whatever. They garner an intense hatred of the innocent locals and go crazy.


I shed no sympathy what so ever.


This is not a few bad apples. This is not the only case something like this has happened. Natto actively works to cover such incidences up. The local statements count for sweet fanny adams. No-one is sure to what extent this crap goes on in the army.

Last I heard in a another article on another thread was that a number of others were being tried because they put pressure on the investigators.

This is not NATO but the US army.

Anyway one man has been given a 10 year sentence for evidence against the others whom will be facing anything from life to the death penalty

Well said.

People hold up examples like this to futher their political agendas in the most deplorable ways. Yes it is an horrific event, but it is no way a reflection of Coalition forces nor the war in Afghanistan. People are so ready to condemn every bit of good those forces do when 1 instance occurs, and yet so ready to dismiss the thousands that occur under regimes like the Taliban.