American Soldiers Execute Handcuffed Minors in Afghanistan

On December 26, 2009, U.S. soldiers executed nine innocent young men during a night raid in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. All nine, ages 11-17, were shot either in the head or chest from close range after being detained and handcuffed. Eight were students in a local school, one was a visiting shepherd boy, and a tenth civilian victim, a teenage farmer, was shot and killed running out of his neighboring home.

From Jerome Starkey of The Scotsman: "Originally, NATO said the...victims were part of a terrorist cell. Yesterday, it admitted: 'Ultimately, we did determine it to be a civilian casualty incident.'"

The military uses such cold, lifeless terminology. Soldiers break into a house in the middle of the night, murder eight family members in cold blood, plus a couple of bonus kills, and it gets benignly filed away under "civilian casualty incident." Oops, shucks. Better luck next time. This "incident" capped off a two-week total of 63 confirmed civilian deaths at the hands of the American military.

Dave Lindorff comments that, "Under the Geneva Conventions, it is a war crime to execute a captive.... It is a war crime to kill children under the age of 15...." Nine of the victims were captive, and three were under 15 years old. So far, the Pentagon and the Defense Department have kept silent on the identities of the soldiers involved or the existence of any investigation.

This story is but one particularly gruesome example of everyday life for the Afghan population terrorized by the American occupation. The drone strikes and night raids continue to escalate, for what meaningful purpose is difficult to determine. War turns fine young men into monsters, murderers, and victims. It's time for the U.S. military to come home before another life is wasted on the alter of empire.