No Oscars for Special Forces in Maidan Wardak

Dear Mr. President,
So much for winning hearts and minds in Afghanistan. So much for conquering heroes freeing people from the yoke of oppression. And so much for keeping Special Forces in Afghanistan until hell freezes over to train their security forces and hunt down Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The people of Maidan Wardak have had enough of American justice, enough killing, enough kidnapping, torture, brutality and terrorism by Special Forces. Villagers and tribal elders have besieged Kabul with complaints; they have videos and pictures of American and Afghan torturers and their victims; the Americans have denied, stonewalled, pleaded ignorance and been unresponsive; so on Sunday the Afghan government finally banned all Special Forces from the province of Maidan Wardak south and wast of Kabul. Of course, the ban could be lifted—and probably will—if a C-130 filled with Ben Franklins is handed over to Hamid Karzai and his cronies. But the report in this morning’s Times, makes clear that the Afghan people distrust the U.S. as much as they do the Taliban. In the article, a February 13 incident is mentioned where villagers accuse U.S. soldiers of kidnapping a veterinarian student; his body was found 3 days later under a bridge. So much for the American heroes you’ve praised, pampered and promoted, the heroes of Zero Dark Thirty, except they turn out to be not heroes but thugs and assassins and there are no Oscars or medals for them. But they do what they’ve been trained to do; to kill and commit mayhem and they are very good at it, true professionals, experts in violence. This tiny glimpse into the war in Afghanistan is the true face of war, Mr. President, and this is your war. It is ugly and brutal, an evil visited on humanity. These U.S. soldiers, these Special Forces are the spearpoint of the American military, the enforcers of foreign policy and they are acting under order from their Commander-in-Chief. That’s you, Mr. President. You are responsible for the murder and torture of every one of the citizens of Maidan Wardak in Afghanistan, in the tribal regions of Pakistan and in the deserts of Yemen and Somalia. We have become terrorists waging a war OF terror, not a war ON terror. We ignore laws domestic and international and call it legal, we murder with wanton abandon and call it justified, we torture and call it necessary, we wage wars of aggression and call them not-wars. But What ye sow, that shall ye also reap and one day we will reap the grim harvest.