For anyone who doesn’t know, The Rolling Stone recently pulled a Wikileaks.  They obtained photos of American soldiers mutilating and playing with the corpses of Afghans they had killed––some of which, by the platoon’s own admittance, were killed for sport––and released them.  Photos included a 15-year-old farmer boy who the Bravo Company had planted weapons on and shot in the head; a severed head; blown up legs; a music video made from a video of exploding Afghans; and a pair of dead Afghans tied up on the side of the road with a handwritten sign draped over them.

Some would argue that the real point of this story is that we have army personnel shooting people for sport.  Others would say that the most important bit is that everybody knew they were doing this and nobody stopped them.  Others, that the accused have continually showed no remorse for their actions.  I, however, would argue that the worst part of this whole leak is that before disciplining anybody in the ranks, the Pentagon tried to cover the pictures up.

The American right has done a good job of demonizing anyone who questions our servicemen’s actions (because if you’re not with us, you’re with the terrorists) but the fact that this happened under the watch of Obama’s administration speaks more to the fraternal nature of war than anything else.  It doesn’t matter who is in charge of the military, as long as we are putting guns in people’s hands and telling them to shoot, atrocities are going to happen, the government is going to work to protect its own, and we won’t be allowed to hear about them.