massacre

Not so long ago the middle classes were marching enthusiastically all over the western world to defend freedom of the press, after the massacre of journalists at Charlie Hebdo. "We are all Charlie!" they cried. Now there is hardly a peep about Julian Assange's cruel and unusual punishment for telling the world of war-crimes. Certainly no mass marches in the street. What's the difference? The mainstream press is singing a different song. It suited them to have people marching in the streets about Charlie Hebdo. Now, for some reason, it doesn't.

“Imagine that in 1946 the general-secretary of the United Nations had submitted a resolution to the General Assembly stating that Nazi crimes were so horrendous and despicable that the countries of the world needed to impose a blanket censorship on any public reference to or discussion of Hitler or his henchmen. Only the names of victims were to be mentioned or discussed. And the U.N. member countries, then, unanimously passed this resolution. If such a resolution had been proposed, passed, and fully enforced, what would we know today about the Nazi regime, the German history of that period, or the origins, premises, logic, and implied conclusions of national-socialist ideology and policies, both domestic and foreign? Without open and public discussion and debate through mention of Hitler’s name and unrestricted access to and use of his papers, speeches, and all other related documents, from whom would the world know why and what the Nazi system had done?” (Extract from article by Professor Richard M. Ebeling).

Justice and crime reporting must be open

Professor Ebeling's points are very well made in the full article. One thing Ebeling does not mention is that the police and justice system are supposed to serve us and we are supposed to keep track of them. Perhaps he does not mention this because it would take him into the personally dangerous realms of questioning his own state. However, the questions remain: If access to documents involving evidence, suspects' identities and trials, is removed from public examination, how can we be sure that justice is being served? How do we know that our courts serve our interests, rather than the interests of criminals and the military? An explosive case in point: If we do not have the material to examine, how can we assess what the New Zealand justice system is doing about the massacre in Christchurch? The arrested terrorist's face was pixelated in video of his being brought to be charged in court. The video record he apparently made of his mass murder, does not match up with what he is reported to have done. It seems to show him going round to two mosques, apparently for a second time, and shooting a mostly immobile piles of bodies. Ambulances did not arrive for over half an hour. It does not make sense. Perhaps there is an explanation, but how can doubts be satisfied if there is to be no discussion and no access to documents?

Many would call such doubts extreme: who could question Western governments?

Egregious abuse of censorship has led to international hounding of an extraordinary individual

Another thing that Professor Ebeling does not mention, is the fact that censorship has clearly been used to protect western evil in recent times.

I refer to the 'classification' of war footage taken in Iraq, leaked by Chelsea Manning to Wikileaks, which published it as Collateral Murder. This war footage was a 2007 recording made by US soldiers in Iraq (a country illegally invaded on an invented pretext and repeatedly pulverised). It records the shooting of unarmed civilians, including ambulance attendants and children, with the authority of the United States military, on the mistaken pretext that one of them may be carrying a machine gun. The video is taken from a powerful helicopter, which shoots hails of bullets into the civilians, a grotesque act of brutality and overkill. They shoot the ambulance attendants when those people are attempting to remove the wounded from the scene. They even shoot an obviously severely wounded man who is dragging himself on his belly towards a door. First they hope he will go for a gun to justify this shooting, but he doesn't, so they shoot him anyway. Twelve Iraqis die, including, among them, two Reuters journalists. This footage was censored by the US Government, but Wikileaks made it public. It is for this reason that the US wants to capture, imprison, and possibly execute past Wikileaks editor, Julian Assange, an Australian who has committed no crime - quite the opposite. The crime is all on the United States side. It is part of an unjustifiable series of brutal events associated with their illegal invasion of Iraq.

If you watch Wikileaks' Collateral Murder, you can assess that crime, and it has been discussed and reported all over the world. You can also assess Julian Assange's subsquent hounding by the United States government. His persecution and false painting as a criminal shows the price of revealing what elites consider their prerogative: mass murder and management of the mass media. Ironically, again, Collateral Murder has been republished many many times, by media outlets which have not been persecuted and which, like cowardly collaborators, have failed to stand up for Julian Assange. Fortunately it has not been recensored. The video embedded in this article is commented on by Julian Assange and Ivan Eland (US Defense analyst and ex-Cato institute director), and compered by a mainstream Al-Jazeera corporate news interviewer. The Al-Jazeera presentation and interview took place in 2010. It is worth looking at as well to see Julian Assange before his demonisation, to remember why saving him from the United States is so important.

And remembering why it is so important to stop censorship - that it is our responsibility to know what is going on, not to accept what we are told is going on as if we were children. Indeed, terrorism by private citizens does not begin to compare on the scale of terrorism by US-NATO.

It looks like youtube has removed this excellent analysis of the New Zealand terror attacks, probably because it criticises the unipolar political perspective of the corporate press and big tech platforms. There is an embed code for the video at Press TV Iran's site, but for some reason it does not work. We will therefore simply link to the press tv site. You can click on the video picture to see the debate.

Press TV Iran's impressive and likable anchor, Bardia Honardar, conducts this debate with admirable calm. Terrorist attacks on two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch left nearly fifty Muslim worshipers dead. The 28-year-old Australian-born suspect, Brenton Harrison Tarrant, who apparently acted alone, has published a manifesto praising US President Donald Trump and Anders Breivik, the Norwegian white supremacist who murdered 77 of his compatriots in Norway in 2011. Debating are author and Broadcaster, Jonathan Fryer (LONDON) and the Editor of Veterans Today, Kevin Barrett (MADISON). Fryer really trots out the mainstream corporate press narrative, but Barrett criticises the mainstream corporate press and the major electronic platforms for suppressing information about how violent US-NATO 'intervention' in the Middle East and adjacent regions are causing refugee flight. He also points to programs since the 1950s designed to increase the committment of soldiers to actually kill people - something that does not come naturally to most. These programs encouraged violent racist images of the designated 'enemy' - in order to catalyse unnaturally violent behaviour. He says that this has permeated the mentality of the US military, and that it took hold of mainstream US popular imagination through manipulative reporting of the 9-11 World Trade Centre events. Interestingly, Jonathan Fryer accuses Barrett of conspiracy theory when Barrett talks about the UN Replacement Migration theory, however this comes from an actual UN publication, dated 2001, which has been taken seriously by governments and universities, including Yale University, late last year. [Part of this introduction has been adapted from the one on Press TV Iran.]

Below is the You Tube site where the video was removed or censored.

On the 2nd October 2018, a young woman’s life was brought to a brutal end by a bullet from an ISIS executioner’s hand-gun. Mrs Thoraya Um Ammar was executed on video by the terrorist group more than two months after she and twenty five other women and children were kidnapped from the Sweida countryside, south of Damascus on July 25th 2018. 

[Note: Numbers of kidnap victims do vary. While in Shbeki, I was told 32 were originally kidnapped but that a number of them managed to escape their captors and return to their village]

Civilian martyrs names and photographs displayed at entrance to the village of Shrehi in eastern Sweida countryside. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley)

The images circulating of this execution are extremely distressing and we will not be sharing them in this article. During my recent visit to Syria, I visited three of the seven villages that came under attack in the eastern countryside of Sweida City on that fateful day in July 2018. The grief and anger was still very raw but civilians spoke to me of the bloodshed that was a result of the meticulously planned ISIS attack, unhindered by the US Coalition forces camped in Al Tanf, 330km to the East. ISIS entered the villages from the east and traversed vast areas of exposed desert to do so, apparently undetected by those who claim to wage war on ISIS inside Syria.

“The roads of Shrehi ran with blood” H Saab told me as we stood next to his family home in Shrehi where four of his relatives were murdered by the marauding ISIS gangs. He pointed to the still visible stains on the road in front of us and on the walls of the house and courtyard.

Road sign to Sweida. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley)

Our journey began in Damascus. We left early in the morning and headed due south before taking the road that brought us to the east of Sweida city and to the villages that form a chain north to south, only about 1km apart. As we entered the province of Sweida, we began to see the elaborate memorials to martyrs killed in Syria’s war against Western-sponsored terrorism. Our guide told us that these beautiful monuments are in honour of the soldiers who have given their lives in defence of their homeland. Many of these impressive structures are placed at the entrance to villages “so their names are remembered for eternity by all those who live because they died“.

We were told that some of these graves also date back to the 1925 ‘Great Syrian Revolt or ‘Great Druze Revolt’ against France. They are wonderful to behold, rising out of the dry desert plains, backdropped by the hills and trees that pepper the landscape stretching out in front of us.

Just one of the many stunning memorials to SAA martyrs from the Sweida region. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley)

On the drive down to the villlage of Shrehi, our guide H Saab told us that thirty-five members of his family had been killed in the ISIS attack that took place in the early hours of the 25th July 2018. I asked him what he believed to be behind this attack. He told me that he thought it was to reduce SAA pressure on the ISIS terrorists holding out in Yarmouk Basin at this time. Perhaps to give them an escape route to the US base at Al Tanf.

Leaving Shahba City by the East Gate. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley)

We entered Shahba City dating from Byzantine times and a city modelled on ancient Rome – “temples, triumphal arches, baths, a theatre, and a great wall surrounding the city were all built based on the plan of a typical Roman city”. We exited the ancient city through the remains of the East Gate and continued on to a number of towns and villages, some built during the Ottoman empire. H Saab told me that many of these village have labyrinths of caves that run underground beneath the houses.

At the entrance to Shrehi, one of the villages attacked by ISIS in July, we stopped the car to visit the poster that had been erected with the names of the martyrs killed during the attack. Young men, women, children, murdered by a terrorist group with a history of collusion with the US Coalition against Syria and the Syrian Arab Army. Acclaimed journalist, Elijah J. Magnier wrote at the time:

“ISIS knew it was possible for its convoy to drive under the eyes of a superpower state (the US) without being disturbed.” 

Video footage of entering Shrehi. Watch: 

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We drove up to one of the highest points in the village of Shrehi to meet with the representatives of the village and the survivors of the attack. We entered the traditional “madafa”, the welcoming room in the Saab family home.

Steps leading down to the Madafa in Shrehi where I met with families of the martyrs and survivors of the attack. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley)

Once inside the Madafa the story of the attack was told by Khaled Saleh Saab.

“The terrorists entered the village at 4 am while most of us were still sleeping. We were awoken by the shooting and the cries of ‘Allah Akhbar’. They shot out the lights in the village and there was no moon that night so they worked under the cover of total darkness” 

On the way into Shrehi we had passed a house that had been one of the first to be targeted (see video), the mother, father and son were murdered by ISIS, the daughter was injured but survived. According to Khaled, 53 ISIS terrorists entered the village and all of them were eventually killed by the young men defending their families and their land:

“We defended our land and our homes because this land is mixed with the blood of generations of our people. We will not accept that people without morals or humanity can touch this land. We stay, we will stand and defend this land until we die. Our youth killed these terrorists even though they had very old weapons, very simple weapons. The ISIS fighters had modern, expensive equipment but we still defeated them.” said Khaled.

Khaled told us that the clashes continued from 4 am until 1pm. Between 4 and 5 am the ISIS fighters took advantage of the sleeping civilians and murdered many of them in their sleep before they had time to warn their neighbours.

“The attack was a well planned military operation. ISIS coordinated their attacks in order to paralyse all the villages. They positioned snipers around the villages and along the roads that connect the villages to prevent people moving between villages or coming to the help of neighbouring villages. They came from the south and moved north.” Khaled continued.

In one of the bloodiest massacres of the eight year war in Syria, 270 civilians were martyred during this attack, more than 300 injured.

“Many of our young men, women and children bled to death in the street. Nobody was able to get to them or to transport them to hospital. If they tried they would be sniped.” Khaled told us.

Khaled told us that, in his opinion, many of the ISIS fighters were on drugs, very likely to be Captagon. “We fired many bullets into them, but they kept fighting” he told us and this was confirmed by other family members in the madafa. In January 2017, “at least 137kg of Captagon, dubbed a “jihadist drug” and “the drug of the Syrian conflict,” was seized at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in a first for France, customs officials said, adding that half of the illicit cargo was destined for Saudi Arabia.” Captagon is a psychostimulant that is used as a performance enhancer by the extremist gangs that have invaded Syria since 2011.

“After we killed the ISIS terrorists, we checked their IDs. They were Chechen, Saudi, Iraqi, Palestinian, Egyptian, Somalian. One was wearing a suicide belt, nothing remained of him after he had detonated it.”

In Shrehi alone there were 37 civilians martyred. These included Khaled’s mother, father, brother and cousin who were killed in the home we were talking in.

“These groups, all of them, are supported by the UK, US and Gulf States to target and destroy our peaceful towns. Throughout history Syria has sacrificed martyrs and we are ready to sacrifice our souls for our land despite more than 120 countries attacking us with the terrorist groups as their instrument. They should know we will stand and fight to defend our land and our  people” 

Just one of the countless heroes from Sweida countryside – Khaled’s brother, Iskandar Saab had served in the 102 “Batch” of the Syrian Arab Army which had been decommissioned just two months before the ISIS attack on his home village of Shrehi on the 25th July 2018.

Iskandar came face to face with the crazed ISIS terrorists as he attempted to scale the hill leading up to his family’s house. He was shot in his right leg, his hand and his back. A local graduate of trade and economy and a math teacher, Mr Mahran Radi Saab saved Iskandar and managed to take him to his brother Khaled Saab. After rescuing Iskandar, Mahran was shot and killed by an ISIS sniper.

Despite his life-threatening wounds, Iskandar managed to get into his car and drive 300m under fire from the ISIS snipers who had lined the roads joining the three villages of Rami, Shrehi and Shebki.

“This land, this property belongs to our blood. It belongs to us. We will never allow any super-power to steal our land or to control our lives, our future” Khaled Saab reinforced this message several times during our talk.

Entering the home of Ziad Saab and greeted by his daughter Kinda. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley)

After the meeting we went to the home of Ziad Saab for breakfast, which in Syria translates into “banquet”.

Ziad’s brother in law lived in one of the houses at the entrance of the village, one of the first to be attacked. As soon as the attack happened, Ziad’s brother in law managed to relay a warning to Ziad who lives with his wife and children deeper inside the village. Ziad took his simple hunting rifle and went to help. As he neared his brother in law’s home, he saw many ISIS terrorists firing randomly and fierce clashes between the ISIS fighters and civilians. It was still dark at this point. Ziad made the decision to return home to protect his own wife and children and to take his family to a safer place.

Then Ziad tried to call his brother in law. An ISIS fighter answered the phone and told Ziad his brother in law was dead, he told Ziad to call an ambulance for his own family members – they would be killed also “there will be no escape”. The ISIS terrorists also attacked the brother in law’s two daughters and their mother – 10 year old Hela and 13 year old Hala.

As we were eating breakfast, a 6 month old baby was brought into the room. Her name is Ghala. Her father was murdered just 100 meters from Ziad’s house, by the ISIS terrorists. Watching Ghala playing in the arms of H Saab, it is painful to comprehend the scale of devastation and loss that these villages have experienced. A recent Facebook post by Syrian, Wissam Sliman puts it into perspective:

“Imagine that this were your village, or your neighborhood! Imagine that one of those were your house! Imagine that the same thing happened to you! Imagine that you lost a family member, or maybe two, or maybe more! Imagine that your mother, sister, daughter or son is still kidnapped and now in the hands of the worst terrorist group ever which is ISIS!

And above all imagine that it didn’t mean anything to half of your brothers and sisters in humanity in this world,just because they are still sleeping, daydreaming and refusing to wake up! What hurts you is that if they did wake up 7 years ago, you would have had many of your beloved ones around you now, but they didn’t, cause they are still refusing to wake up!

A burned out car seemed fused to the earth at the entrance to Shbeki. The car, a Skoda, had once belonged to Bahjat Atallah Saab who tried to rescue Zahi Jadallah Saab and his wife and son, Assem Zahi Saab, a law student. The entire car was targeted when they tried to flee the ISIS attack on Shbeki that began at 4am on 25th July 2018. The car came under attack by the ISIS snipers before being targeted by an RPG which turned the car into a furnace from which the occupants did not escape. Martyr Bahgat Saab was working as an Arabic language teacher.

This house in Shbeki was taken over by ISIS early on and used as a sniper vantage point. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley) 

The horrific ISIS bloodbath continued in Shbeki, in fact it intensified. In this village, 60 civilians were martyred, many of them systematically picked off by ISIS snipers after they occupied one of the outlying homes set high up overlooking the buildings and streets that lay below. The house owner was in Lebanon when he heard news of the attack. He rushed home to find out what had happened to his family, he was shot and killed by the ISIS occupiers.

View from the roof of the house used by ISIS snipers to target civilians below. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley)

Video from the rooftop of the house taken over by ISIS snipers in Shbeki. WATCH: 

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Hazem, a young student in his third year studying research science at Damascus University, received a call at 4.40 am on the 25th July 2018, when he was in Sweida city. He was told that his home town of Shbeki was under attack by ISIS fighters.

Hazem got in a car with five of his friends and tried to drive home, he was being guided by people inside the town who warned him which roads to avoid because ISIS had set up snipers along many of the entry roads into his village. Hazem entered from the south which was longer but safer. At 5.30 am he was still unable to enter because of the battles that were raging between the terrorists and the residents, determined to defend their families and land.

Hazem welcomed us in the traditional Sweida Madafa – the welcome room – of his family home. The sun poured through the glass onto the beautiful marble floor and chairs arranged around the sides of the room to provide a space to talk. Hazem recounted the appalling acts of violence committed by the ISIS terrorists who had entered the towns from the direction of the US base at Al Tanf, to the north-east of Shbeki, Shrehi and Rami..the villages I was able to visit.

Hazem’s testimony was shocking. He told us that his family and other civilians were rounded up and taken to what he called the “bedouin house” at the outskirts of the village overlooking the plains and desert that stretch out towards the east and in the direction of the US military base at Al Tanf.

The Bedouin house on the outskirts of Shbeki overlooking the plains and desert to the East. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley)

There, the ISIS terrorists took all the men outside and executed them in cold blood. Among them were Hazem’s father, brothers, cousin and neighbour. The ISIS fighters then forced the women and children to come outside to see the bodies of their fathers, sons, husbands before they kidnapped them and headed north east with the kidnap victims, towards Tilal Al Safa.

Hazem confirmed that 60 civilians were martyred in Shbeki, the majority from sniper bullets after ISIS fighters took control of houses placed high above the village which enabled them to assassinate the young men who flocked to defend their families, one by one. Most of these young men did not realise that their hometown was infested by ISIS snipers – just as in the other villages, ISIS had attacked at 4 am under complete darkness and while everyone was sleeping. As in Shrehi, they shot out all the village lights during their approach before entering homes and murdering civilians, including children, while they slept. Hazem told us that a disabled child was beheaded as he lay sleeping in his bed.

Hazem’s mother had been used as a human shield by the ISIS fighters who forced her to walk in front of them to prevent the civilians firing upon them. She was later among the kidnap victims although she and Hazem’s sister in law managed to escape and returned to the village just after midnight. They were terrified that ISIS had taken over the village so they slept in an abandoned house just outside the village. The following evening, they were able to recognise their neighbours and families who had survived and defended their village, preventing total occupation by the terrorist group.

During the march, Hazem’s uncle’s wife had collapsed and had been unable to continue. The first group of ISIS terrorists left her where she lay and refused to leave anyone to take care of her. Later, another team of ISIS fighters followed on behind and executed her on the road. Her body was eventually found, the next day, 6km from the village.

While we were talking with Hazem, a young boy came in to the Madafa and lay on one of the chairs. His name was Ismail, 8 years old. His father was murdered by the ISIS fighters and he was among the kidnap victims. During the move north-east with ISIS, Ismail had managed to mingle with some Bedouin children and escape the ISIS groups, before finally making it back to his village.

Before we left, Hazem wanted to send a message about the remaining 25 kidnap victims, almost entirely women and children:

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Hazem showed us the road that ISIS took with the kidnap victims.

“They took the women and children who were in the Bedouin house by this road. They gathered the other women at the same end of the town next to the graves. All the women were in one place around 8.30 in the morning but they waited a long time before moving them. They took this road to the north. They took them in the direction of the Tial Al Safa hills which you can see from the Bedouin house. We think they reached the Tilal Al Safa hills after five or six days.”

Direction that ISIS took towards Tilal Al Safa. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley)

I asked Hazem if he was worried about sleeper cells or further attacks from the ISIS members. He pointed to the closest SAA checkpoint about 30 km to the north east of the village. He told me:

“There are big gaps between the SAA checkpoints, around 5km, so yes, we are worried that they may try to come back. It is not considered safe here after dark at the moment. From 5pm onwards the young men of the villages man the checkpoints in readiness for any possible attacks. We will not allow another massacre.” 

SAA soldiers in Tilal Al Safa to the North East of Sweida where they have been waging a fierce campaign to defeat ISIS. 

The SAA have been making huge inroads in the area of Tilal Al Safa towards defeating the remnants of ISIS that have taken comfort in the shelter provided to them by the proximity of the US base in Al Tanf.

“ISIS benefitted from the US safety parameter around its military base at al-Tanaf, preventing Syrian and Iraqi armies from breaking into this parameter to pursue ISIS when needed. ISIS took advantage of the US measures and used the area to cross for the north where there is the bulk of its forces.” ~ Elijah J Magnier  

Today, 6th October 2018, Syrian Arab News Agency reported:

“Units of the Syrian Arab Army, in cooperation with the allied forces, on Saturday continued to tighten the noose around Daesh (ISIS) terrorists’ remnants in depth of the rocky cliffs surroundings Tilal al-Safa, the last stronghold for terrorists deep in Sweida eastern Badiya (desert). The army continues to advance in the depth of the rocky cliffs, comb the caves and the cav”erns in the recently liberated areas, seizing weapons and munitions left behind by the terrorists, the reporter indicated.”

One of the kidnap victims, Thoraya Um Ammar, has been executed by ISIS, the others await their fate, surely praying that the SAA will be able to reach them and to drive out and destroy their ISIS captors. The unity and resilience of the people of the Sweida countryside is what has enabled them to survive the ISIS attack and its traumatic aftermath.

As I walked away from the stone “Bedouin” house that had been witness to such bloodthirsty brutality and violence, I spotted a flower stubbornly clinging to the wall outside. This is the spirit that has borne Syria through this 8 year war with such dignity and honour. The desire to defend their roots, to live and to love life against all odds.

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Vanessa Beeley is an independent journalist, peace activist, photographer and associate editor at 21st Century Wire. Vanessa was a finalist for one of the most prestigious journalism awards – the 2017 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism – whose winners have included the likes of Robert Parry in 2017, Patrick Cockburn, Robert Fisk, Nick Davies and the Bureau for Investigative Journalism team. Please support Vanessa at her Patreon Account.

#ff0000;">READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files

News is still filtering out today about a US Army Staff Sergeant who allegedly yesterday (Sunday) left his barracks in southern Afghanistan before dawn and walked to the rural villages of Balandi and Alokzai in Afghan's southern Panjwai district and went on a shooting rampage, murdering sixteen unarmed civilians in their homes. Reportedly mostly women and children are among the dead. The number of wounded is still not known.

The male soldier was apparently by himself as he walked from house to house opening fire Sunday on the Afghan villagers as they slept. Apparently some bodies have also been burned.

"No Taliban were here. No gunbattle was going on," cried out one woman, who said four people were killed in the village of Alokzai, all members of her family. "We don't know why this foreign soldier came and killed our innocent family members. Either he was drunk or he enjoyed killing civilians."

The other 12 dead were from Balandi village, said Samad Khan, a farmer who lost all 11 members of his family, including women and children. Khan was away from the village when the attack occurred and returned to find his family members shot and burned. One of his neighbors was also killed, he said.

"This is an anti-human and anti-Islamic act," Khan said. "Nobody is allowed in any religion in the world to kill children and women."

One woman opened a blue blanket with pink flowers to reveal the body of her 2-year-old child, who was wearing a blood-soaked shirt.

"Was this child Taliban? There is no Taliban here" said Gul Bushra. The Americans "are always threatening us with dogs and helicopters during night raids."

U.S. forces have been implicated before in other violence in the same area. Four soldiers from a Stryker brigade out of Lewis-McChord, Washington, have been sent to prison in connection with the 2010 killing of three unarmed men during patrols in Kandahar province's Maiwand district, which is just northwest of Panjwai. They were accused of forming a "kill team" that murdered Afghan civilians for sport — slaughtering victims with grenades and powerful machine guns during patrols, then dropping weapons near their bodies to make them appear to have been combatants.

[Read More: 'American opens fire on Afghan Villagers - kills 16']

Of course after having recently contributed an article on this website associated with the Hoddle Street Massacre of 1987, another such a tragic incident is on my mind.
[Read article: 'RMC Duntroon officer training perpetuates a dangerous bullying culture']

As the incident is too fresh to know the truth, the causes, the details, no fair assessment can yet be made. That will be the task of the investigation as promised by US President Barack Obama.

Some questions though.

1. Why?
2. Why was a US soldier, irrespective of rank and role, able to leave his barracks with a loaded weapon(s) unauthorised?
3. What drove an experienced senior soldier to murder local civilians under the US protectorate and why did he target the specific villages of Balandi and Alokzai - was there a particular incident(s) involving this staff sergeant, was it targeted revenge for a previous incident at these specific villages, or was it just convenience - the villages were just close to the barracks?
4. What is the standard of professional psychological monitoring of US serving soldiers, if any, and what was the assessed psychological state of this particular soldier?
5. If the US Army in any capacity becomes aware of a US soldier is having difficulties coping with service (combat or otherwise) what options are there for a soldier to resign from the Army, if any?
6. Was the psychological state of this US soldier, the lack of psychological monitoring of him by the US Army and the lack of process to allow psychologically affected soliders to resign from the Army - contributing factors to these separate massacres?

Military attacks are typically pre-dawn, so his training has been effectively applied to these massacres. It seems to be very easy for a bad soldier to obtain the means and opportunity to commit a massacre.

* How can such atrocities be prevented?
* Can such atrocities be prevented at all - are there really rules in war? Doesn't the victor judge and rule what was a war crime?
* When does a model soldier, one that is exemplary, take on behaviour and attitudes of a bad soldier?

To become a US Army Staff Sergeant involves exemplary soldiering and rising through the non-commissioned ranks from Private, to Lance Corporal, to Corporal, to Sergeant, to Staff Sergeant.
In the US Army, Staff Sergeants are generally placed in charge of squads (30+ soldiers) , but can also act as platoon sergeants in the absence of a Sergeant First Class. So it is a responsible leadership position. This grade is normally achieved after 10 to 13 years in service.

When in battle, military training sanctions killing, survival sanctions killing, and it is only a few extrapolated justifications away from 'murder' if the rules are broken. It's like kill on green, stop on red. If you shoot on red suddenly your decorated soldier status is erased and you are a callous murderer - ostracised, condemned, criminalised. Sounds too simplistic? Well remotely, war may be clear cut reading as a civilian having never been there, but the first thing lost in war after truth is normality. Relativity replaces normality.

Normality is relative. It is a norm nurtured by culture. Civilian bahaviour is controlled and reinforced by the police and media. Military culture is out of sight out of mind. Military culture in training and in real warfare inculcates norms based on what works and based on a fundamental instinct for survival. Kill or be killed is a basic premise. In an abnormal context, aka war, military normality cannot be reconciled easily with civilian normality. Debriefing needs to take multiple phasing and case by case based, else post-war trauma becomes lifelong.

Atrocities committed by soldiers are more prevalent than many people recall. The following case also involves a US Army sergeant in Afghanistan.

In 2011: US Soldier Sentenced to Life in Prison for Afghan Atrocities

In November 2011, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs was sentenced by a military panel in the U.S. state of Washington to life in prison for killing Afghan villagers for sport and cutting off their body parts as trophies. The case has raised questions about how the U.S. military handles misconduct.

It started as a probe into the use of hashish in a troubled platoon. What followed were grisly revelations of planned murders of Afghan villagers who had their fingers cut off and kept as trophies.

During the court martial, which spanned two weeks, the panel was shown grisly photos of severed fingers, and a corpse with its teeth pulled out.

Prosecutors argued Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs was the ringleader who plotted to kill three Afghan villagers in a remote area of Kandahar province. Witnesses testified that grenades and other weapons were placed next to the dead to make the killings appear to be legitimate combat scenes.

Gibbs denied killing two of the villagers. A third, he said, had tried to attack him. In testimony, Gibbs said he cut off fingers to keep as trophies much as a hunter would remove and keep the antlers of a deer.

Platoon members testified Gibbs had disdain for Afghans, described them as “prehistoric” and called them savages who did not deserve to be helped. They also said he led a gang beating of one soldier for reporting the use of narcotics in the platoon.

The image of Gibbs as a hateful killer is not one that exists among many in his hometown of Billings in the U.S. state of Montana. Elementary school employee Mary Mattheis knew him as a child. She told VOA she remembers Gibbs as a well-behaved boy who came from a good family, and she now wonders what may have happened.

“He was always well-mannered and always a nice boy and very polite and kind, and I always remember him for that and always liked him, too. I felt quite disturbed that this would be happening. War is an awful thing, so I imagine he’s had his share of what they can do back there, too, in Afghanistan. I imagine he’s seen a lot, too, that’s maybe done things to him,” said Mattheis.

The killings were among the worst atrocities reported in the Afghan conflict.

The case has received little attention in the U.S. media - and some see that as a sign of war fatigue among Americans. Lawrence Korb was assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration and is now a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress research group.

“Americans want to focus on the problems we have at home. We’ve had the greatest economic downturn since the depression. Americans feel that these people don’t appreciate what we’ve done for them. They just want to basically get home and rebuild the United States rather than rebuilding these societies,” said Korb.

Korb believes the lengthy conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan overextended U.S. forces, especially the army where soldiers were subjected to multiple deployments.

“They took in people who shouldn’t have been in the military under normal circumstances, but particularly put into an atmosphere where it’s hard to tell friend from foe, who the good guys and who the bad guys are, what is the end game. You’re asking an awful lot of these young men and young women. So, to the extent that there have been these horrible crimes committed, I think we as a nation are partly to blame,” said Korb.

Gibbs is the highest ranking soldier to be convicted in the case, and there is no word from the army that any of his commanders have been investigated. The Pentagon leadership has been silent on why the rogue atmosphere in Gibbs’ platoon was allowed to go on - even after the father of one platoon member reported the troubles to several officials at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the home of Gibbs’ 5th Stryker Brigade.

Cases are pending against two other soldiers.'

[Read More: US Soldier Sentenced to Life in Prison for Afghan Atrocities]

Lest we forget.. US Army's My Lai Massacre against Vietnamese villagers on 16th March, 1968, almost exactly 44 years ago today!

This followed the lesser known Massacre at Hue throughout February 1968 by the Viet Cong, just weeks prior. During the months and years that followed the Battle of Hu (Tet Offensive), which began on January 31, 1968 and lasted a total of 28 days, dozens of mass graves were discovered in and around Hu containing 2,800 to 6,000 civilians and prisoners of war. Victims were found bound, tortured, and sometimes apparently buried alive.

Zimbabwe Feb 2012: 'Top soldiers in court over murder, poaching'

“I find war detestable but those who praise it without participating in it even more so”

~ Romain Rolland

President Barack Obama is right to seek a diplomatic defusion to calm the "drums of war" over Iran.

Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria
Australia

The RSPCA has undertaken various inspections under the Animal Cruelty Act in respect to the current 'culling' program kangaroos at Majura Firing Range by the Commonwealth Dept. of Defence. Various institutions forwarded several reasons for the necessity of this massacre, one being that the kangaroos were 'starving' so the RSPCA was requested to give advice regarding evidence of 'starvation.' The RSPCA was very compliant in providing the necessary statements this time last year for the 500 + kangaroos at Belconnen Naval Transmission Station, even though photographs taken by locals revealed no starving kangaroos. The majority of those kangaroos were killed so they wouldn't have to experience 'starvation.' On Tuesday May 5, 2009 Defence began to shoot the kangaroos which continued up till Wednesday May 13, 2009 at which time an injunction called for a cease-fire. In eight days a total of 4,000 kangaroos were claimed to have been killed - er sorry, 'culled.' We have a number of questions for the CEO of the RSPCA: 1. On What days, at what times and for what lengths of time were representatives of the RSPCA in attendance at the site before and during this period? 2. What procedures did these representatives use to ensure that (a) kangaroos were starving and (b) the killing by Defence was 'humane' according to the Animal Welfare Act and the ACT Code of Practice for the Humane 'Destruction' of Kangaroos. 3. In relation to question 2 above, please outline in detail:- (i) Did RSPCA representatives travel across the entirety of this large 8,000 ha site or were inspections restricted to particular areas? If the latter, please specify which areas were inspected. (ii) What sample size of kangaroos was used to draw conclusions about the population? (iii) Were qualified veterinarians in attendance at this time? (iv) Was any video footage or photographs taken before or during the kill program by RSPCA inspectors/representatives? (v) What percentage of kangaroos were killed by a single head shot? (vi) How were in-pouch joeys killed? (vii) How were ex-pouch joeys killed? (viii) How many Defence shooters were used and what was their level of expertise/qualification for the task? (ix) What type of firearms were observed by your inspectors to be used by Defence shooters to kill the kangaroos? (x) Was the killing undertaken by night spotlight and rifle shooting of free-ranging animals? Or were other methods such as rapid-fire weapons, coralling of animals used? (xi) If the kangaroos were confined, how long had they been confined? What type of fencing was used? Did they have access to food and water? Were they exhibiting signs of stress? (xii) Has the RSPCA given a schedule of numbers of kangaroos killed during the period including a demographic profile of male/female, adult/juvenile/pouch young? (xiii) Is the killing to be continued? Are the health and stress levels of the remaining kangaroos being monitored? On June 2 there will be an Administrative Appeals Tribunal hearing in Canberra to determine whether or not Defence has adequate grounds to continue the killing in light of new scientific evidence that has not been considered by Defence proving that there need never have been any 'culling'. Jon Stanhope, in the meantime, has his knickers in a knot trying to create new laws to override the injuction so the killing can continue regardless. It's pretty obvious that there is another cover-up story waiting to be discovered, as was revealed at Belconnen. Would any of us be surprised if six months down the track poof! a new housing estate or extension of the airport required the purchase of surplus Defence land at Majura? I for one wouldn't be. HELP US GET 10,000 SIGNATURES - ASK YOUR FRIENDS TO SIGN TOO!