In the news at least once a week, if not more, it’s reported that Afghanistan and the efforts that the United States has undertaken may be to no avail if we continue to smear the campaign.
Two seemingly uncorrelated events have flayed the current U.S.-Afghanistan situation in combating the Taliban and government corruption.
First, we turn our eyes to Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., a pastor at the non-denominational Christian Dove World Outreach Center, and author of “Islam is of the Devil.” He made claims that were widely publicized to burn a Quran publically on the 9th anniversary of 9/11 this past September.
Although Jones did not followed through on this promise then, he decided to follow through on it last month. He was the judge of a public trial that found the Quran guilty and punished the religious text by dousing it in kerosene and publically burning it, reported USA Today.
This event received little media attention in the U.S., but was inflammatory in the Middle East, particularly in Afghanistan. Protests broke out and a group of Afghanis stormed the United Nations compound and killed seven people, The Huffington Post reported.
Also, a report published by Rolling Stone recently detailed several instances where U.S. soldiers have killed Afghani civilians for pleasure.
The act in itself is atrocious; but beyond that the armed men oftentimes chose helpless targets that had no intentions of endangering anyone. Pictures were taken with the dead — a combination of mementos that excited the men.
“The soldiers began taking photographs of themselves celebrating their kill. Holding a cigarette rakishly in one hand, Holmes [a soldier] posed for the camera with Mudin's [Afghani victim] bloody and half-naked corpse, grabbing the boy's head by the hair as if it were a trophy deer,” Mark Boal wrote in his article “The Kill Team.”
Although several of the photos are available online in accompaniment with Boal’s article, several of them were confiscated, deleted or withheld by the Pentagon and U.S. Armed Forces. Boal stated it plainly, “The message was clear: What happens in Afghanistan stays in Afghanistan.”
This is also apparent in that no official punishments have been issued for a series of deaths that have transpired because of the Kill Team’s unnatural drive to kill innocent people. The killings began roughly one year ago.
Both Jones and these soldiers have acted in a way that is detrimental to American efforts in Afghanistan. The military’s tactic of counterinsurgency, an effort to rally the Afghani population behind the U.S. forces to aid in the transformation of society, has largely failed.
Some American citizens refuse to treat Afghanis with respect, and so we are losing the battle because of our own actions. Jones’ campaign of hate against Islam in the U.S. and the Kill Team’s rampage abroad show this.
Americans have staked a large portion of the blame on the corruption of the Afghani government — and although that plays a large role — American actions have a steady flow of exploitation flowing alongside them.
Reach Brittany at brittany.morris@asu.edu
