On 12th March, Jon Snow wrote a blog on ‘The remoteness of modern war‘ where he discusses the war in Afghanistan.
He states, ‘It is when a soldier goes berserk and kills 16 Afghans, nine of them children, or a when direct hit steals six British lives from an “impregnable” armoured vehicle, that war lurches back into awareness.’
The rift in US-Afghanistan relationship started mushrooming after the Quran burning incident by NATO. Soviet style rallies and protests carried on for a week, demanding apology and eradication of the soldiers. Unlike his stand in Libya after NATO bombed civilian tanks, President Obama did apologise. It does not matter for the Pathans/ Pasthuns anymore because their radical indifference and nonchalance has been catalysed by stupendous momentum from such enraging acts of the west. Sectarian violence and civil war, and above all, the usage of Afghanistan to devastate Al-Qaeda soon after the country was breaking out from USSR’s clutches, leaves an indelible memory of pain. An opprobrium.
But the recent, almost paroxysm of epilepsy in which a US soldier killed 16 Afghans, nine out of whom where children, speaks another story.
This incident did not happen in response to answering back the ‘barbaric’ Afghans after their showed the mettle to protest against NATO. Rather, it goes back to the very moment the respective US Soldier was forced into mandatory conscription service. An average cosmopolitan American, patriotic and not just loyal to his American identity, took the risk. Life in Afghanistan is difficult, and different from life in a colonised country. This soldier knows nothing of Shia-Sunni strife, Pathans and their Taliban links, Al-qaeda and its locations, customary laws, culture and above all language. For him, Afghanistan is barbaric and he carries the burden of cleansing the blemish. Something similar to what Europeans believed when they captured Cape of Good Hope in South Africa in 1652. Benn Morris defends such attitude, stating ethnic cleansing is better than genocide against yourself.
Now, armed with flawless hi-tech arms and ammunition, this US soldier, ignorant but brave, has been given the order to shoot anyone/anytime, if he feels danger. There is a difference here. He can shoot when he ‘feels’ danger rather than when he ‘faces’ it. Tightly grouped in his units, he shares loyalty to other soldiers, their safety and perceptions. War becomes the pornography of violence for him. Just like teenagers play with fast, animated war games, his deployment gives him the same adrenaline rush. No one questions him. No one orders him. The Afghans are anyways ‘illiterate‘, ‘poor‘ and ‘meaningless‘ creatures for him. Life becomes abstract and so does its values and principles. That US soldier, initially did not know that he would cause deaths of several innocent civilians. He also did not know that one day, he will reach to a point when it wont matter to him. One day, one of his own soldiers would die after being killed by Pathans/Taliban. Second day, perhaps the IED would explode exactly where he stood, saving him in the nick of time. Blood, vomit, alcohol will be all he sees. And slowly life and death, would prove unnecessary to care about.
When one reads newspapers, one knows about the figures involved in such a mad spree. How many died and who killed whom? But it is never publicly mentioned about the psychological condition of the soldiers. We will be shocked to know how many of them suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. The life they would live after they are sent back to US would not only change them, but also their relation with their country. Many veterans and retired soldiers find it hard to be patriotic after they witness how diplomacy actually functions.
Modern warfare and cold peace are still struggling to find answers to such a phenomenon. Perhaps, one day, we might have one.
shubhdachaudhary 