American media suppresses report on US military crimes in Afghanistan

As the press reports on the political debate of extending Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy, the more important story of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan forming their own secret “kill team” that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected various body parts as trophy’s, is largely ignored by the media in America and shunned by political leaders. Unable, afraid, or unwilling to link the enormous amounts of money being spent on the war in Afghanistan to the political debate of extending tax cuts to the wealthy, the lack of coverage by the mass media of soldiers murdering civilians and keeping body parts as trophies enables more Americans to be less critical of the war in Afghanistan and isolated from the vicious brutality that goes with war. Just as President Bush and the GOP controlled Congress has pushed the country closer to bankruptcy by starting two wars while at the same time cutting taxes for the wealthy, the lack of extensive media coverage of U.S. soldiers collecting human body parts as war trophies is now pushing a country engulfed in perpetual war towards moral bankruptcy.

While most of the American media focused on the story of an obscure Christian minister in Florida threatening to burn copies of the Koran in the days prior to anniversary of 9-11, the corporate-controlled US media maintained a virtual blackout on Pentagon documents released on September 8. In contrast to most of the media in America, the significance of revelations of U.S. soldiers murdering Afghan civilians was widely recognized around the world. The British newspaper The Guardian published a front-page expose on the morning of 9 September, in addition to several major articles in other newspapers in Britain, Canada and Australia. With the sole exception of the Associated Press, United Press International, The New York Daily News, CNN, The Seattle Times and the Tacoma Tribune-Review, which carried extensive accounts based on interviews with local military personnel and family members of some of the accused, the rest of the mass media in America ignored the story.

As this story is certainly embarrassing for the U.S. military, like the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the Obama administration and the Pentagon will undoubtedly use the same tactic as the Bush administration did and blame the atrocious actions of these soldiers as an isolated incidence among the tens of thousands of soldiers serving in Afghanistan. Like the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, this tactic allows the media to focus on the actions of low ranking soldiers, and diverts attention away from the higher-level policy makers. As anthropologist Laura Nader noted in her 1969 essay entitled, “Up the Anthropologist”, the study of social systems is often directed downwards, at those less powerful in a society rather than those in power. By focusing on the low-level actions of individual soldiers, the media hinders the American public from beginning to question the more substantive constitutional and moral implications of a country in perpetual state of war.

While vast majorities of Americans are not aware of U.S. soldiers murdering civilians and collecting human body parts as war trophies, most Americans are also unfamiliar with the immense amount of private military contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the story of 12 U.S. soldiers illegally killing Afghan civilians is disturbing, unlike private military contractors who often go unpunished for similar crimes, U.S. soldiers who commit crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan can still be held accountable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The most notable example of the disparity of how military personal are accountable for the crimes they commit as opposed to private military contractors is the 2007 incident in Iraq where five Blackwater guards accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in a controversial shooting in a busy Baghdad square were acquitted of all charges.

The lack of coverage by most of the media in America of US soldiers killing Afghan civilians for sport and collecting fingers as trophies , reveals the continuing problem of the press failing to perform its duty as a free and independent watchdog.

If there is any hope of creating the social and political mobilization needed to end the military mission in Afghanistan that is bankrupting the country, the press in America needs to regain its independence and practice one of the most fundamental freedoms in the American constitution. Freedom of the Press.

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