Recently Glenn Greenwald, American lawyer and columnist, examined in brevity the issue of how the motives for the “rogue soldier” accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar, Afghanistan are discussed by the mainstream Western media:
“Here’s a summary of the Western media discussion of what motivated U.S. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales to allegedly kill 16 Afghans, including 9 children: he was drunk, he was experiencing financial stress, he was passed over for a promotion, he had a traumatic brain injury, he had marital problems, he suffered from the stresses of four tours of duty, he “saw his buddy’s leg blown off the day before the massacre,” etc.
Here’s a summary of the Western media discussion of what motivates Muslims to kill Americans: they are primitive, fanatically religious, hateful Terrorists.
Even when Muslims who engage in such acts toward Americans clearly and repeatedly explain that they did it in response to American acts of domination, aggression, violence and civilian-killing in their countries, and even when the violence is confined to soldiers who are part of a foreign army that has invaded and occupied their country, the only cognizable motive is one of primitive, hateful evil. It is an act of Evil Terrorism, and that is all there is to say about it.”
Greenwald explains quite candidly that there is undeniable hypocrisy present in the canvasing of the most recent massacre of civilians in Afghanistan; we find that the general public is more than happy to give the accused killer a break, that with Staff Sgt. Roberts they are unabashedly open and understanding. There is now a steady barrage of opinion pieces delving deeper and deeper into the seemingly unending assortment of woes U.S. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was allegedly juggling; one can almost image the columnists patting the Bales on the back at the closing of their articles, a soothing “there, there Robert, it’s ok” being lightly whispered into his ear. Read more
