the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Apr 30, 2012
“This is war. And I know that war is ugly and violent.”
These are words that U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta used when he spoke about two photos published by the Los Angeles Times. The photos show U.S. troops in Afghanistan posing jokingly with body parts, and the Times says 18 such photos were leaked to the paper.
The Pentagon, headed by Panetta himself, demanded that the Times NOT publish any of the photos. The public should not know that the war these officials are presiding over is “ugly and violent.”
Panetta declared that the photos depicted actions against the “regulations” and “core values” of the U.S. military.
In fact, that’s exactly what these photos show: the “core values” of U.S. imperialism. For more than 10 years, the biggest, most advanced military machine in human history has used all its might and state-of-the-art weapons to rain destruction on Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world–at the cost of death and suffering to Afghan people and U.S. troops.
Disturbing? These photos? No, what is disturbing–violently disturbing–is the war.