For the past 6 or 7 years, I’ve kept an increasingly fat folder labelled “Atrocities.” It contained reports of abuses by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan so egregious that even the military couldn’t ignore them. I retitled it “A Few Bad Apples” when it became clear that those who got caught had to be portrayed as anomalies so as to avoid the central question of what the hell they’re doing there in the first place.


Thursday, December 17, 2015

our elite corps

This story from the New York Times, along with the official investigation report, documents appalling behavior by Navy SEALs in Afghanistan. The behavior is bad enough; the official response is bad enough plus. To quote the Times: "The SEAL command, though, cleared the Team 2 members of wrongdoing in a closed disciplinary process that is typically used only for minor infractions, disregarding a Navy lawyer’s recommendation that the troops face assault charges and choosing not to seek a court-martial."  Arrogance? Dehumanization? What inevitably happens when you've been an occupying force for well over a decade? You decide.
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