"There have been many, many thousands of Afghan civilians, men, women and children deliberately targeted, deliberately killed to intimidate the population," Stephen Lendman told Press TV on Thursday.
"Things go back, I believe, to World War II, to intimidate the opposition. We did it ruthlessly in Vietnam, and the most well-known Operation Phoenix, with the estimated number of civilians that we killed, numbered maybe 80,000. The number could have been doubled," he added.
He said the United States military presences in Iraq and Afghanistan is tantamount to war crime.
"There is no question of war crimes being committed … our presence in both Iraq and Afghanistan is a war crime; both wars are illegal. We violated international law. We violated US law. We violated the US Constitution by being there. These are war crimes. Every day by being there, we have committed war crimes, because we have committed crimes against humanity. We deliberately target civilians. There is nothing about random civilian killings," he added.
Lendman is a prolific writer on domestic and international issues with damning pieces of criticism on the American military interventions and Israeli acts of violence.
Source: Press TV 12 Aug 2010
'US kills civilians to intimidate people'
A US writer and radio host says that the country's killing of civilians in Afghanistan serves the purpose of public intimidation.
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As I recall, the Japanese did this during the war in a number of ways - as I recall reading, they beheaded Singaporeans and stucks the heads (thousands) on posts on the main road going into Singapore. The Japanese also practiced cannibalism - it is said that George Bush Sr. would have been eaten had he been captured - though other vets have disputed Bush's recollection of what happened when his plane went down.
http://www.rense.com/general47/hero.htm
I don't believe the Americans have ever been as brutal, on such a large scale, as the Japanese or the Bolsheviks. This does not mean that I condone this behavior.
When a soldier or idelogue sees the "enemy" as subhuman (and this is due to indoctrination) then they can rationalize treating them in a subhuman manner. The Japanese and the Bolsheviks both had their tribal mentalities and feelings of superiority to go on. The residual efffects of alcohol and drug abuse can also fuel these types of massacres.
It's a multilayered issue, and of course, the Americans have no idea how they are being used.