[Content Note: War; violence; dehumanization.]
The LA Times has a big story today, which contains graphic images provided to them by an anonymous soldier, about photographs of US troops posing with bodies of dead Afghans, which has prompted a military investigation.
I don't really have anything to say about the story, except to observe that this is what happens during wars. The US tells itself sanctimonious morality tales about global leadership and exceptionalism, and then goes to war with shock and awe and indulgent parades, and then acts fucking surprised when it turns out ugly things happen during wars and US soldiers aren't impervious to being evil, or foolish, or susceptible to the psyche-walloping effects of sustained exposure to gruesome trauma.
There will be conclusions about "bad apples" and so forth, as there always are, but, the truth is, there is only one solution to this problem: Get the fuck out of Afghanistan and stop going to war with the contemptible belief that it will ever be any different than this.
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