KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Afghanistan is full of wonderful people and could be a really terrific place to live. But first my government back home in the United States would have to stop murdering civilians over here.
I can’t join in antiwar rallies over here, where I would be happy to speak against the crimes of my own government, because it’s not considered safe for foreigners, especially Americans, to go near such scenes. Why? Well, imagine if this were happening in the United States and a citizen of the nation responsible were to come visiting:
A definite pattern has been established of killing civilians from the air and on the ground.
The United States has made clear its intention to continue and escalate this behavior.
On the first of March two U.S. helicopters hunted down and slaughtered, one-by-one, nine young boys gathering firewood.
Recently released photographs show U.S. soldiers posing with the corpses of people they’ve killed for sport.
Just this Monday troops reportedly killed an innocent shopkeeper.
On Tuesday, a raid killed six.
On Wednesday a convoy ran over three.
Elsewhere, soldiers ran two over and shot a third on Wednesday.
Dear Afghanistan, I would love to stay and apologize, but I must be going. I hope to see you in better times, to drink your tea, ski your mountains, and marvel at your people in a future era of peace, Inshallah.