A QUICK TRIP THROUGH A MILITARY ZONE!

A QUICK TRIP THROUGH A MILITARY ZONE! (Frazer Chronicle)

"The only good Indian is a dead Indian, it doesn't matter, young, old, men, women, kill 'em all." That was the mentality of the United States Calvary in the United States more than a hundred years ago and that mentality remains to this day.

Like the man said, "war is hell," the actions of one U.S. soldier, married with two children pointed that out last week when he walked into a small village in Panjwaji, southwest of Kandahar city, and went on a shooting spree leaving 16 dead including 9 children.

Was the guy hopped up on something, was he a time bomb ticking who simply went off, had he lost sight of the mission in Afghanistan, or had he seen too much war and death? Good questions all.....but don't expect an answer any time soon.

There is a pattern here that has been played out literally thousands of time around the world in war time and mostly the questions that rose from the ashes of those tragedies were left unanswered, wisps of smoke in the air that slowly dissipated and were forgotten.

I mentioned yesterday that a pole had shown that "60%" of Americans wanted the decade old war to end in Afghanistan. I said, yesterday, that the pole results were "disappointing because it meant that 40% felt the war was justified." Today, I feel stronger than ever, 4 in 10 still haven't gotten it, 4 in 10 still glory in death, and 4 in 10 still feel that the expense, the wasted effort and the loss of life is worth the war.

When you have war, you have back door smoke filled room secret decisions that either make or break entire societies, or that destroy complete cities, villages and entire regions. These clandestine decisions have long lasting effects not only on enemy states, but to the "good guys" fighting the wars.

This as yet unnamed mass murderer has opened a new chapter in the annuls of American warfare, torture and horror towards human-kind. Should we be surprised, should we be shocked or grief stricken, why don't you be the judge of that.

How many people "out there" really, really feel that the United States is without blood on their hands.....come on, come clean, you don't really think that Americans have any less monsters locked away in closets, to be let out only in case of war, then any other country, do you?

Remember the "only good Indian is a dead one" quote, well that phrase was coined well over a hundred and forty years ago and was, more an attitude then a practiced mentality. Indians were view as half human, savages, ignorant and worse, Godless. Why were they all of these things, well, pal, they had something that Americans wanted, land and resources, so they were swept aside.

Over the past ten years of war, incidents of human atrocities have been reported, prisoner abuses, rape, dismemberment, and murder. It's all still there, whether it was a hundred years ago, or a thousand. People have failed to control themselves.....it is our one fatal flaw, that failure to control our urges brings us as a species to the lowest levels of any living creature.

And the worst part, the enigma of man, most don't understand why, we all seem to hide from the truth and the simple understanding that war is not good, almost no matter the reason. If we know that we can't control our prim-evil urges, well then I guess the most intelligent thing to do is not to put ourselves in those positions where we might lose control.

There was the My Lai massacre in Vietnam well over 300 deaths, the Haditha, Iraq killings, 24 shot dead, the Abu Ghraib fiasco, the Shinwar shootings in Afghanistan, 19 dead, 50 wounded and now the shooting spree in Panjwayi, killing 16 by a single gunman.

Collateral damage it is called, don't let collateral damage blur the mission and the ultimate goal of our troops. Confusing.....actually yes and I don't even serve there, but things a person reads watches or hears changes on a daily basis.

The trip that our soldiers take every day throughout the war torn lands that they occupy has to be, at best, un-nerving, hard to understand, maddening and of course dangerous. It is no wonder that men and women lose control of their frailties, and their priorities. A loose cannon, in a war zone can come completely un-glued; take their weapon, clips of ammo and to rid "their world" of their adversaries.

Alas, there is no "quick trip through a military zone," it is a slow, arduous, danger filled trek; filled with enemy, the possibility of injury or death and the personal demons that each of us has within ourselves. Things can get "hazy" when one is expected to "decide to control himself and not to murder or rape or demean his human counterpart." He has to remember, under all the blood, guts, sweat and dirt that his enemy carries, there is a human being.....just like him.