"Uncle Sam"'s Nephews

Interrogation tapes that show how casually some American soldiers have killed unarmed and non-threatening  civilians in Afghanistan have surfaced.  The soldiers themselves have admitted that those killed were in no position to harm them.  They were picked at random, grenades thrown at them and then shot.  Just like that.  The "excuse" being that the soldiers were under a lot of stress and under the influence of illegal drugs and so forth.

But, this is what Joseph Conrad masterfully describes in Heart of Darkness and Francis Ford Coppola shows in Apocalypse Now: the dehumanizing effect of war, especially against people of color and ethnicity that is perceived to be intrinsically inferior to the white man.  So, much more of this savagery is to be expected from the perennial "good guys" from the USA.

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