{"id":18767,"date":"2012-03-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/regthink\/from-beirut-to-balandi-occupation-corrupts\/"},"modified":"2023-06-02T20:57:33","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T20:57:33","slug":"from-beirut-to-balandi-occupation-corrupts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regthink.org\/en\/from-beirut-to-balandi-occupation-corrupts\/","title":{"rendered":"From Beirut to Balandi: Occupation Corrupts"},"content":{"rendered":"
Late Friday, the United States Armed Forces\u00a0revealed<\/a>\u00a0the identity of the suspected perpetrator of a civilian massacre in the villages of Balandi and Alkozai in the southern Kandahar region of Afghanistan that killed 16 individuals, including 9 children. \u00a0\u00a0This horrifying attack on unarmed innocents is only the latest in a series of episodes involving U.S. troops that have attracted bad publicity (and corresponding intensified anger toward coalition forces) in the last few weeks, including two provocative incidents where U.S. Marines were\u00a0video-taped<\/a>\u00a0urinating on the bodies of dead Afghanis and soliders\u00a0engaged<\/a>\u00a0in the burning of Qurans at the Bagram Airforce Base in Kabul.<\/div>\n
\n

As the Obama administration haplessly attempts to placate the Karzai regime that (at least publically) states it wants the U.S. military to leave, it also continues to weigh extending the 2014 U.S. withdrawal date.\u00a0 However, with incidents of brutality and disrespect amongst the rank and file on the rise, can the U.S. afford to lose its soul to gain security and stability in Afghanistan?<\/p>\n

Enlisted immediately after the 9\/11 attacks, Robert Bales was a veteran of three tours of service in Iraq before being deployed to Afghanistan last fall.\u00a0 By most\u00a0accounts<\/a>, he was a good soldier, earning a medal of commendation during previous campaigns.\u00a0 Bales himself\u00a0stressed<\/a>\u00a0the importance of safeguarding civilian lives, expressing pride in the soldiers under his command in the battle of Najaf, Iraq in 2007, as \u201cwe discriminated between the bad guys and the non-combatants.\u201d\u00a0 At home, Bales is\u00a0remembered<\/a>\u00a0as a gregarious family man, although he has a troubling past of an assault complaint in 2002 and another charge of leaving the scene of an accident in 2009 which were apparently not known \u2014 or considered \u2014in his military profile.<\/p>\n

While there is no\u00a0record<\/a>\u00a0of physical or mental disorders, he was injured twice in Iraq and witnessed combat wounds amongst fellow troops (including one gruesome incident the day before his attack).\u00a0 He was also thought to be drinking heavily in Afghanistan, including the evening of the massacre in the villages.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Bales retained the services of high profile attorney\u00a0John Henry Browne,<\/a>\u00a0who has defended several \u201ccelebrity\u201d clients (including serial murderer Ted Bundy and the \u201cBarefoot Bandit\u201d Colton Harris-Moore), in preparation for an apparent insanity plea.\u00a0 As Browne\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0an assembled press conference, his client was a \u201cmild-mannered\u201d soldier who bore no animous toward Muslims.\u00a0 \u201cI think it’s of interest that we have a soldier who has an exemplary record, a decorated soldier who was injured in Iraq, to his brain and to his body and then despite that was sent back,\u201d he\u00a0argued<\/a>, continuing, \u201cIt’s a tragedy all the way round, there’s no question about that. I think the message for the public in general is that he’s one of our boys and they need to treat him fairly.”<\/p>\n

Whether or not Bale was motivated by the delusions of post-traumatic stress disorder, viewing the Staff Sgt. as a mentally-disturbed lone wolf ignores a broader pattern of military misconduct that must be considered in the debate over U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.\u00a0 As lessons from the Israeli case in Lebanon and the occupied territories, the British and French colonial experience, and previous U.S. operations in Vietnam and Iraq demonstrate, when liberal democracies occupy other countries in the name of nation-building, it often not only fosters corruption within the regimes they intend to assist, but has unintended moral consequences for themselves.<\/p>\n

In spite of the fact that the mission in Afghanistan remains incomplete \u2014 a corrupt, ineffectual government, an indigenous armed forces \u00a0incapable of defending against both internal and external threats, a restive and emboldened Taliban, a harbor for Al-Qaida and terrorist groups, an anemic civil society, and many other concerns \u2014 the consequences of remaining on the ground may be too great.\u00a0 The United States must carefully consider whether it is willing to win the battle for Afghanistan, but lose the war for its own soul in the process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late Friday, the United States Armed Forces\u00a0revealed\u00a0the identity of the suspected perpetrator of a civilian massacre in the villages of Balandi and Alkozai in the southern Kandahar region of Afghanistan that killed 16 individuals, including 9 children. \u00a0\u00a0This horrifying attack on unarmed innocents is only the latest in a series of episodes involving U.S. troops […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[315,3127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-the-middle-east"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Beirut to Balandi: Occupation Corrupts | The Regional Thinking Forum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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