No Medals For AmeriKans in Afghanistan

I wouldn't award them for war crimes; would you?  

"The relative lack of medals from Iraq and Afghanistan, they argue, has contributed to a lack of public appreciation of the sacrifices made by US troops during the last nine years of war."  

Honestly, readers, I'm sick of the war-promoting media and its insults.  

It is the lying, war-mongering bastards who sent them and keep them their that don't appreciate them and view them as tools of empire.

Related: Medal of Honor for a hero

Think these guys deserve some?

"Army won’t seek death in Afghan killings" by Gene Johnson, Associated Press  |  October 16, 2010

SEATTLE — A US soldier who told investigators in horrifying detail that he and other members of his unit executed three civilians in Afghanistan for sport will not face the death penalty if convicted, the Army said yesterday....

No decision has been made on whether to send the other four defendants to trial....

The allegations are some of the most serious to emerge from the Afghan war. In interviews with Army investigators, Specialist Jeremy Morlock of Wasilla, Alaska, described a plot led by Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs to randomly kill civilians while on patrol in Kandahar Province. Gibbs denies the charges and maintains that all of the killings were appropriate engagements, his lawyer said.

Prosecutors have also alleged that members of the platoon mutilated and posed with Afghan corpses and collected fingers and other body parts. Morlock talked about how they threw a grenade at one civilian to “wax him.’’

The killings occurred in January, February, and May. In each, prosecutors said, Morlock and Gibbs enlisted one other soldier to be involved. Lawyers for those three said they either deny involvement or that their participation was unwitting.

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Related: The Thrill of the Hunt in Afghanistan

"Unit tried to defend killing at heart of Afghan probe; Platoon leader said cleric made aggressive moves" by Craig Whitlock, Washington Post  |  October 27, 2010

WASHINGTON — The gravest war crime charges to emerge from the nine-year Afghan conflict.  

The WHOLE THING has been a MASSIVE WAR CRIME!

According to the documents, the cleric’s death culminated a months-long conspiracy in which members of a unit of the Fifth Stryker Brigade, Second Infantry Division, randomly targeted and killed three unarmed Afghan men, dismembered corpses, and posed for grisly photographs with their victims.

The attempts to defend the May 2 shooting are detailed in previously undisclosed audio recordings made by a photojournalist embedded with the unit. 

Related: New York Times Reporter Breaks a Leg in Afghanistan 

I hope he fared better than the NYT guy.

The recordings, obtained by The Washington Post, demonstrate the extent to which the platoon was concerned about how the killing was perceived among Afghans.

But the recordings also raise questions about why Army commanders did not take those suspicions seriously and failed to notice broader signs of trouble in the platoon until a member of the unit, under investigation for hashish use, tipped off military police....  

They DID NOT WANT or CARE to KNOW!

The Army has built its criminal case almost exclusively on videotaped confessions and other statements obtained from members of the Fifth Stryker Combat Brigade, including two of the soldiers charged with killing the cleric.

As the cases make their way through the military justice system, defense lawyers are seeking to toss out their clients’ confessions. The lawyer for Specialist Jeremy Morlock, one of three soldiers accused of killing the cleric, has said his client was under the influence of heavy medication when he was interrogated.

Did they waterboard him, too?

“Once they got the statements out of the witnesses, they stopped doing any real investigative work,’’ said the lawyer, Michael Waddington. “It’s clear they wanted it to be a quick, clean conviction with a couple of confessions.’’

Yeah, that's AmeriKan justice!

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Btw, folks, it is NOT JUST THEM!

"Afghanistan to void a quarter of ballots; Election is testing government’s resolve to change" by Heidi Vogt, Associated Press  |  October 20, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — Meanwhile, a US soldier was taken into custody after an Afghan detainee was found dead in his cell, apparently from a gunshot wound, NATO said in a statement last night.

The man was found dead in his holding cell in Kandahar Province’s Arghandab district Sunday. He was being held temporarily at an Afghan government facility under US guard.

The United States has launched a criminal investigation into the death, NATO said. Rear Admiral Greg Smith said the United States takes seriously any allegations of mistreatment of prisoners.  

Uh-huh.

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Related:

Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/The First Abu Ghraib

Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/Perversion

Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/Dilawar and Habibullah

Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/Chamber of Horrors

Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/American Amnesty

Hell-oween: Afghanistan Torture File/Bagram

 Yeah, it is ABOUT THAT TIME AGAIN, isn't it? 

Also see:

Afghanistan Torture Chamber

Inside Bagram Prison

The Globe's Weekend Movie 

I don't go to the movies anymore.