Disgusting. I don’t understand how these soldiers can murder civilians and somehow receive a sentence of only twenty-four years in prison. (That amounts to four years per kill.) Imagine the outcry if these men had killed six white suburbanites in America? People would be calling for their deaths.

Instead, it’s another stark reminder of the fact that, for most Americans, the value of humanity ends at the borders of the United States.

Per CNN:

Adam Winfield is one of six soldiers who, while on assignment in Afghanistan, are accused of participating in an illegal “kill squad” that murdered civilians and covered up the alleged crimes by making it appear as if they were insurgents. An additional six soldiers are accused with lesser crimes in the case, including helping to cover up the killings.

Winfield originally faced five charges, including murdering three Afghan civilians. If convicted, Winfield faced a potential life sentence in a military prison.

In March, another soldier, Pvt. Jeremy Morlock, pleaded guilty to to killing three Afghan civilians for thrills and covering up the murders. Morlock testified in 2010 they murdered the unarmed men on patrols in villages and then planted “drop weapons” on them to appear as if the soldiers had first come under fire before killing them.

Morlock’s chilling testimony painted a picture of soldiers gone rogue; abusing drugs, executing Afghan civilians they referred to as “savages” and posing in photographs over the dead men. Morlock is serving a 24-year prison sentence.

wizardpiss:

Spc. Jeremy Morlock admitted to the murder of unarmed Afghan boy Gul Mudin (depicted here). He was only 15 years old. They lined him against a wall and ordered him to stand still before they shot him. Pfc. Andrew Holmes cut off his pinky as a memento. Morlock admitted that this wasn’t the first time he murdered civilians. According to him, soldiers in his Platoon “[threw] candy out of a Stryker vehicle as they drove through a village [and shot] children who came running to pick up the sweets.” The Pentagon worked for months to get these pictures deleted and suppressed. He was recently sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Private Bradley Manning, horrified at the war crimes unfolding around him, reported them to higher authorities in his chain of command. When they told him to keep quiet about it he published the details of the crimes to the public. He is facing the death sentence. Is there something wrong here?

____

Warning: Very graphic photographs below the ‘read more’ link. 

These men were monsters, and if they’d committed these crimes against white Americans, our country might actually be outraged.  As it is, they committed their crimes against faceless brown-skinned civilians in a war zone, so there are far too few who give a damn about it.

Read More