"We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat.

At a March video conference with troops in the field, McChrystal flat out admitted, "We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat." I’d love to have seen the McSmirk he had on his face when he said that.

Ultimately, whether he qualifies for a section 8 discharge or is merely an amoral leader of the world’s best-funded death squad, he’s ensuring that David Petraeus’ Long War keeps getting longer by creating an endless supply of enemy soldiers, and supposedly responsible, sane people in charge of the mightiest nation in the history of humanity – including the commander in chief who promised he would change things – are perfectly happy to sit by and let him do it. What’s more, the American public hasn’t risen en masse to demand an end to this madness, and there’s no sign it’s going to.
http://original.antiwar.com/huber/2010/04/05/mccrackers/

Because all those people who participated in this and have a conscience are going to need it.

H.R. 6983:
Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008
110th Congress
2007-2008



To amend section 712 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, section 2705 of the Public Health Service Act, and section 9812 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require equity in the provision of mental health and substance-related disorder benefits under group health plans, and for other purposes.

They shoot and kill people for nine months - "an amazing amount of people" - and not one of them is a terrorist. By their own admission, 100% of them were innocent civilians.

Really, when you are killing 100% civilians, what is the difference between the US occupation and Pinochet?

McChrystal was charged with reducing civilian casualties, and he has taken steps to do that (for example, by bringing Special Ops units under his direct command).

The point of his statement was that shooting people who are not a threat is unacceptable.

shootings from convoys and checkpoints involving American, NATO and Afghan forces continue to plague the coalition. Shooting deaths caused by convoys guarded by private security contractors - not part of the calculation — make the total number of "escalation of force deaths" far higher than just those decried by McChrystal

.http://www.alternet.org/media/146251/shocking_admission_on_killing_civilians_by_top_us_general_almost_completely_ignored_by_corporate_media

When the NYT broke the McChrystal teleconference story, it provided much more context than we've seen since. Some excerpts:



Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the senior American and NATO military commander in Afghanistan, is trying to cut civilian deaths, saying, “We have shot an amazing number of people.”

***

/(edited to add -- re: checkpoint shootings)/
Though fewer in number than deaths from airstrikes and Special Forces operations, such shootings have not dropped off, despite new rules from General McChrystal seeking to reduce the killing of innocents.

***

After assuming command last summer, General McChrystal moved to reduce the killing of civilians through directives that, according to United Nations human rights researchers, have led to a 28 percent reduction in such casualties last year by American, NATO and Afghan forces. The biggest impact was reducing deaths from aerial attacks, which fell by more than a third in 2009, the United Nations found.

More recently, General McChrystal moved to bring nearly all Special Operations forces in Afghanistan under his control. NATO officials said concern about civilian casualties caused by these forces was partly behind the decision, along with the need to better coordinate units and ensure that local commanders were aware of what was happening.

One unit could be doing counterinsurgency, while another carried out “a raid that might in fact upset progress,” General McChrystal explained during the videoconference.

***

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/world/asia/27afghan.html?hpw

"Less than 100 members of Al Qaeda remain in Afghanistan. The Karzai government we once supported is controlled by warlords and is riddled with corruption. Pakistan’s stability will be gravely imperiled by an expansion of the war. Hundreds if not thousands of troops will be killed, along with countless civilians. Anti-American sentiment throughout the Muslim world will be inflamed by civilian bloodshed, facilitating recruitment by terrorist organizations."

It cost a million dollars a year per one soldier to police this country, and more deaths to be come. http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/?p=949

(who, himself, has been the subject of allegations involving death squads, coverups of murder of civilians by U.S. troops, and coverup of the facts in Pat Tillman's death by friendly fire).

and the only "threats" who would have been shot anyway would have been those opposing our uninvited, murderous, raping, pillaging presence in the first place.

I am guessing it is pretty hard to repatriate to a place like Sweden, right?
I'd love to live somewhere sane, a country that valued life over money, truth over lies, peace over war, rational thought over caveman grunting and clubbing.

Fuck that "marlboro man" pic the news mags wanted us to fawn all over.