Gun control

On October 3rd, the United States bombed a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Despite the fact that the hospital provided GPS coordinates to the US, despite the nine-foot flag on the roof marking the building as a hospital, and despite repeated pleas by hospital staff to US officials to stop the bombings, the US continued to bomb the site for over an hour. Among the 22 dead following the attack were children, patients, and medical personnel from Doctors Without Borders. Thirty-seven others were also injured.
The Pentagon has issued numerous statements. The international community was assured: “No, we don’t target hospitals,” and “Insurgents were firing on US service members! On Afghan forces!” But of course, this is par for the course.
A better read is that the bombing was celebratory. The US just had its 14th anniversary in Afghanistan! Among the fond memories: 25,000 dead civilians; destabilisation of nuclear-armed Pakistan; repressive insurgency; CIA paramilitary units, paired with a massive opium/heroin exporting infrastructure. Of course, civilian deaths in Pakistan read similarly, and in Iraq, estimates are as high as 165,000.
With that in mind, where is the international cry for disarmament of the United States and international intervention into US affairs? Estimates put civilian deaths in Syria in the tens of thousands – certainly a crisis deserving pause as for-itself. However, the US has systematically committed mass atrocities around the globe for decades. Why no demands from the United Nations that US comply with international law? Why no sanctions on the US?
Let’s invest in a little introspection and take stock of the strobing ticker of US democracy and justice: The US still practices ritual sacrifice – I mean capital punishment – graduating one of the largest classes in the world to the electric chair (or some more ‘humane’ cocktail of (experimental) lethal chemicals) every year. This is despite the 2007 UN moratorium on the practice, and of course, the system is rife with significant class and race biases.
The US has an estimated 20,000-25,000 individuals in solitary confinement at a time. Many are children under the age of 18. They spend 22 hours or more per day alone in an isolated cell – just like grown-ups. But even non-US citizens get to join in on the fun – the US is indefinitely holding over 100 people without charge at Guantanamo Bay prison, where they have been subjected to some of the most depraved torture techniques imaginable. But I guess since the US just calls this ‘enhanced interrogation’ it doesn’t count, right?
Hundreds of people are killed each year by US police forces – over 700 already in 2015. And by people, we really mean Black People, mostly men. To the Pentagon’s relief, we aren’t only deep into the ‘Stan’s.’ The US is militarily ‘involved’ in about 150 countries throughout the world.
As if justice hasn’t done enough, the US is extrajudiciously killing its own citizens. Anwar al-Awlaki, Samir Khan, and Jude Kenan Mohammad – all American-born and American-blown. Oh, and 16-year-old Abdul Rahman al-Awlaki, son of Anwar al-Awlaki, killed 2011 in Yemen. Just like the grown-ups. We’re Number One – at selling weapons to crooks! Whose weapons does Isis use again?
Pretty long for a short list, and it could go on for pages.
A 2013 survey of 68 different countries voted the US as number one threat to peace in the world. The international community need look no further to find peace. Disarm the Great American Mafia and global peace and security will flourish. Focusing the human rights gaze on ‘developing’ nations with unscrupulous human rights records is a Band-Aid. Better to stop the bleeding at the source.
Why, then, is the UN not pushing for sanctions against the US government?
This article has been excerpted from: ‘Why gun control should start at the Pentagon’.
Courtesy: Counterpunch.org