KABUL, Afghanistan — In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.
“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”
The policy of instructing soldiers to ignore child sexual abuse by their Afghan allies is coming under new scrutiny, particularly as it emerges that service members like Captain Quinn have faced discipline, even career ruin, for disobeying it.
– From the New York Times article: U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies
It would be bad enough if U.S. wars overseas were merely a gigantic waste of taxpayer money. Although they certainly are that.
It would be bad enough if U.S. wars overseas resulted in the inadvertent deaths of countless innocent civilians and unimaginable humanitarian crimes. Although they certainly do.
I would be bad enough if all of those things were happening in the context of a rational, humane and ethical foreign policy. The problem is, nothing about U.S. foreign policy can be said to have good intentions. Every battle, every drone strike and every deployment of troops in modern day America is rooted in a insatiable imperial lust for money and power.
Of course, many of those serving in the military in various roles are decent, ethical people who do not chase these ideals; however, these are not the people calling the shots. The people calling the shots are certified sociopaths; unimaginably sick, twisted people. Admitting this is hard for most Americans, but it is unquestionably true.
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