Last week, there was a well-publicized story about 16 Afghan civilians who were murdered in their homes in the middle of the night. Most reports have said that it was done by one American soldier. However, there have been some conflicting reports saying that several American soldiers took part. Regardless, it is an important story and one that deserves attention.
If nothing else, this story points to the extreme hypocrisy of the U.S. government and even many Americans who continually promote war. Almost all Americans condemn the 9/11 terrorists who murdered about 3,000 Americans, and rightly so. But didn't this American soldier just do the same thing that the terrorists of 9/11 did. Perhaps the motives were different, but the results were the same (except for the number of dead).
These were Afghanis who were completely innocent. Many of them were children. This American soldier (or soldiers) murdered these innocent people. So should the Afghan government now have the right to start bombing America because of this act of murder? In the eyes of Americans who want to continually bomb Afghanistan because of 9/11, wouldn't this be the consistent thinking? The terrorists on 9/11 were supposedly linked to the Taliban, but even that is sketchy. However, there is no question that this American soldier was connected to the U.S. government. In fact, he was trained to kill by the U.S. government.
The other point to be made with this whole story is that this is only one incident. This particular incident is more newsworthy because it was a deliberate act. But there are many times when innocent Afghanis are killed "accidentally". If a plane drops a bomb on an Afghan village that "accidentally" hits a wedding party and kills innocent people, it is labeled as regrettable, but there are rarely charges brought against those who dropped the bombs or those who ordered that the bombs be dropped. But why should this be any different? Even if the pilots dropping those bombs were not trying to deliberately kill innocent people, they still knew that there was a good chance that innocents would be killed.
If someone deliberately shoots someone, while another person randomly fires a gun in the air in a crowded area and kills someone, is there really much of a difference?
This whole incident never should have happened. The U.S. military is occupying Afghanistan (along with many other countries). These soldiers should not be there in the first place. The people that were directly responsible for 9/11 are dead. Osama bin Laden is also supposedly dead. There is absolutely no reason for the U.S. government to be in Afghanistan and definitely no reason for bombing or shooting anyone there.
All U.S. military personnel and government contractors should be brought home to the U.S. at once. The innocent people of Afghanistan do not deserve to be terrorized by Americans. Americans must take the moral high ground and withdraw immediately.