After destroying AP evidence of a civilian slaughter in Afghanistan, U.S. to probe Marine unit
Marines face U.S. probe in Afghanistan deaths
Marines accused of shooting and killing civilians after a suicide bombing in Afghanistan are under U.S. investigation, and their entire unit has been ordered to leave the country early, officials said Friday.
Army Maj. Gen. Francis H. Kearney III, head of Special Operations Command Central, responsible for special operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, ordered the unit of about 120 Marines out of Afghanistan and initiated an investigation into the March 4 incident, said Lt. Col. Lou Leto, spokesman at Kearney’s command headquarters.
A spokesman for the Marine unit, Maj. Cliff Gilmore, said that it is in the process of leaving Afghanistan, but he declined to provide details on the timing and new location, citing a need to preserve security.
In the March 4 incident in Nangahar province, an explosives-rigged minivan crashed into a convoy of Marines that U.S. officials said also came under fire from gunmen.
As many as 10 Afghans were killed and 34 wounded as the convoy made an escape. Injured Afghans said the Americans fired on civilian cars and pedestrians as they sped away.
I understand there are a lot of Afghans who don’t feel the same, but I have sympathy for the Marines in question, and truly hope there is some alternative explanation for this situation. If things are as they appear, the Marines in question are certainly culpable, but the real blame goes much further up.
War is Hell. And the fact is, the Neocon death brigade running the nation don’t give a shit about actual soldiers. They are only fodder for political photo ops, and for the war machine, as President Bush made so eloquently clear today.
But the men and women who are serving the U.S. out of a sense of pride, are being continually shoved back into the hell of war, and it should be no surprise when they act like devils. PNAC slaughtered those civilians just as much as the Marines did, if in fact that is what happened.
Now I wonder if there will be any type of apology to the Associated Press for destroying the filmed evidence they had of this grisly affair.
As Associated Press Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said:
“In democratic societies, legitimate journalists are allowed to work without having their equipment seized and their images deleted.”
But the sad fact is, the same people who don’t give a shit about the troops, don’t much give a shit about democracy, either.
–WKW