from Hacker News

The CIA’s Afghan Death Squads

by sudoaza on 12/19/20, 3:54 PM with 52 comments

by 1cvmask on 12/19/20, 7:47 PM
This happens in every American war. The perpetrators are often promoted and encouraged.
And the media often is involved in the “coverup”.
In Indonesia the CIA orchestrated rebels and then a coup that resulted in the killing of over 3 million locals. And mainstream American media were involved in the cover up.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Indonesia
https://www.workers.org/indonesia/chap2.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/th...
Other massacre examples that had coverups and denials:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Gun_Ri_massacre
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mỹ_Lai_massacre
by blindm on 12/19/20, 5:17 PM
> Wait! Before you go on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadn’t done it?
Gotta say this article goes above and beyond to document what happens in these pointless permawars used to justify (U.S) military spending.
by ahelwer on 12/19/20, 6:06 PM
The USA does not promote peace nor democracy. This is not the result of good intentions gone awry. This is exactly what is intended.
We really have learned nothing from Vietnam. There, too, unrestricted murder of children was justified as removing future enemies.
by pstuart on 12/19/20, 7:31 PM
The basis for the US being in Afghanistan is allowing the 9/11 operatives to train there, and yet we haven't bombed Florida (where they also trained).
And at no point since this madness started has there ever been a declaration of what "victory" looks like.
But yeah, let's celebrate the troops! Hooray for our warriors who "keep America safe". Let's pour even more money into this madness and wave the flag, shall we?
by realjohng on 12/19/20, 6:11 PM
Actions like these damage American moral authority in the region, and frankly within the American populace as well.
I often wonder where passionate distrust of the government has emerged from in recent years, and it is probably things like this which disillusion readers.
by 082349872349872 on 12/19/20, 5:01 PM
The death squad sort of thing is part of why I believe Smith is an unreliable narrator in 1984. Real regimes don't mildly torture problematic people and then keep them around at length, as if they were boys[1] enforcing a boarding school hierarchy, instead they get rid of them shortly and cheaply, for instance by one-way helicopter rides.
[1] although the very puerile "it's no fun ruling unless the ruled know you're doing it" is the only explicit answer the book gives to the question posed by where Goldstein's text is left hanging: of what does "...the original motive, the never-questioned instinct that first led to the seizure of power and brought doublethink, the Thought Police, continuous warfare, and all the other necessary paraphernalia into existence afterwards..." really consist?
by cryptica on 12/19/20, 7:27 PM
It's scary how a government with such seemingly innocent goals as maintaining the prosperity its citizens can end up doing such horrible senseless things.
It seems 100% counterproductive. It looks like checks and balances don't work that well after all.
I'm starting to see the benefits of small government. The case for a decentralized, citizen-driven monetary system is also increasingly strong. Reduction of government and monetary reform must go together or else we risk corporations or some other large bureaucratic organisations replacing the government and end up doing the same kinds of senseless things.
An economy should not support such massive and immoral waste of human lives and productive capacity.
by Despegar on 12/19/20, 5:11 PM
Ah a classic of American foreign policy.
by cheezymoogle on 12/19/20, 5:24 PM
It's a shame that an escalation in civilian deaths is viewed as an evil, but that there are civilian deaths to escalate is viewed as a necessity of foreign policy.
by bostonsre on 12/19/20, 5:49 PM
It's a tough ugly war with no good options. I absolutely agree that this type of death squad summary execution crap is unacceptable. It's less reported now, but the taliban use the same type of tactics of fear to project control over the population. Leaving a power vacuum for the taliban will also lead to atrocities and medieval rules for the female population. I'm sure the military industrial complex has played some role in this war, but there really are lots of people in our military trying to be honorable and do the right thing.