Enduring freedom

Human Rights Watch has issued a report on abuses by US forces in Afghanistan. The report accuses US forces of operating outside the rule of law, looting, using indiscriminate and excessive force, reckless disregard for civillian lives, arbitrary and indefinate detention, and mistreatment of detainees verging on torture.

Long-time readers will also remember that two suspicious deaths in US custody have been ruled homicides; since then, nothing has been done, no investigation seems to have been conducted, and no charges have been filed. The US army, it seems, does not care how its soldiers behave.

This simply is not good enough. The US claim to be the good guys; it is well past time they started acting like it.