Urban Renewal- USG Style

Take a close look at these two “before and after” photos. Here you see what the USG ultimately resorts to when it cannot successfully achieve desired objectives through persuasion or even limited violence. It turns to the option of total destruction.

According to the report from Wired (the link courtesy of the indispensable Antiwar.com), “An American-led military unit pulverized an Afghan village in Kandahar’s Arghandab River Valley in October, after it became overrun with Taliban insurgents.”

Apparently, the Taliban Gang occupied and controlled this particular village which was also coveted by the USG Gang. Despite overwhelming firepower and the blessings of the "Christian" god, the skilled, brave, USG warriors were getting their butts kicked and failed trying to overtake this village . Therefore, a nut job by the name of Lt. Col. David Flynn pulled the old “save the village by destroying it” trick out of the Vietnam-era bag of tricks, unleashed 25 tons of bombs and turned the village to dust. Problem solved. No more Taliban and tough cookies for any innocent civilians who may have been present.

Nut Job Flynn defends his actions, in part, with this statement: “As of today, more of the local population talks to us and the government than talk to the Taliban.” Well, why wouldn’t they? What choice do they have? The resident bullies (the Taliban) have all been killed or scattered. Now that the new bully on the block has arrived (the USG) and the local’s homes and businesses have been turned to gravel, who else is there to talk to- Allah?

For the locals, it might just be easier to deal with the Taliban. Their motives are consistent and easy to understand. The USG, however, offers constantly changing directions and policies. If I were an Afghan, I would still be trying to figure out why the hell the USG was even there in the first place.

Not to worry, if your American bred conscience is experiencing even slight pangs of guilt and regret. The USG will counter their obscene destructiveness with the usual ploy- throw around other people’s money in a grand rebuilding program. Nut Job Flynn has received approval to spend up to one million dollars in this case. No offense to the (still living) people of Tarok Kolache, but does it look like the rebuilding of this village would cost this much?

Of course, 99% of Americans will never hear of this incident. And of those who do, only a minute percentage will understand the obvious, obscene absurdity of it all. To most, Tarok Kolache is/was just some random collection of mud huts occupied by strange brown people on the other side of the world. No NFL football games were cancelled, American Idol wasn’t delayed, an ample supply of sugary foods still line the shelves of our grocery stores, the TV cable still works, and most important of all no Congress Critters were shot.

So why bother being concerned?