Is This Fucking Afghanistan?!?!

A note for all the cheery, optimistic, dumbass types, who are always all like, "Oh, we're so much more advanced today than people were in the past. We're refined and fucking civilized, man!" And at some point, they say something like, "It's not like we burn people at the stake anymore!"

Oops. Burning people alive on national teevee. Fuck yeah, AMERICA!!!!

I'm like really stupid, so these really stupid questions occur to me. There was absolutely no way to take this suspect alive eventually? They couldn't wait him out? I guess maybe they had other important stuff to do -- the kid's high school play, a book club meeting, maybe a department barbecue (har dee har har). And since they're not absolutely sure it's Dorner who was burned alive ... well, um, does that mean maybe they burned someone else alive? Did they determine that no one else was in the cabin? Does anyone care?

Guess that's just collateral damage, huh? Like this:

At least 10 civilians, mostly women and children, have been killed in a Nato air strike in Kunar province in Afghanistan, local officials say.

If you got shot or killed, you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was totally your fault, motherfucker!

For example, what the hell did these women think they were doing?

The two women who were mistakenly shot by LAPD officers searching for triple murder suspect Christopher Dorner Thursday said they had no warning beforehand, the victims' lawyer told CBS Los Angeles.

Attorney Glen Jonas said Maggie Carranza, 47, and her mother, 71-year-old Emma Hernandez, were delivering Los Angeles Times newspapers around 5:15 a.m. in Torrance when the officers opened fire on their vehicle.

Jonas said, "There was no warning. There were no orders. No commands. Just gunshots." ...

"Tragically, we believe this was a case of mistaken identity by the officers," said Beck.

Jonas finds that hard to believe.

"The vehicle is a different color. The license plate doesn't match. There's nothing there for you to start shooting people. And even if they had the person in question... Mr. Dorner...you still have to give them an opportunity to get out. You can't just start administering street justice," said Jonas.

Hey, Mr. Jonas, psst! They burn people alive! Street justice would be a step up.

And this dude -- going surfing?? How fucking irresponsible is that?

David Perdue was on his way to sneak in some surfing before work Thursday morning when police flagged him down. They asked who he was and where he was headed, then sent him on his way.

Seconds later, Perdue's attorney said, a Torrance police cruiser slammed into his pickup and officers opened fire; none of the bullets struck Perdue.

His pickup, police later explained, matched the description of the one belonging to Christopher Jordan Dorner — the ex-cop who has evaded authorities after allegedly killing three and wounding two more. But the pickups were different makes and colors. And Perdue looks nothing like Dorner: He's several inches shorter and about a hundred pounds lighter. And Perdue is white; Dorner is black.

"I don't want to use the word buffoonery but it really is unbridled police lawlessness," said Robert Sheahen, Perdue's attorney. "These people need training and they need restraint."

This reminds me of similar glorious episodes from America's recent past:

In September 2007, an Iraqi in a car ventured too close to a US patrol in Baghdad. The soldiers honked their horns; when that didn't cause the car to turn away, one of the gunners fired a warning shot. The bullet - intended to harmlessly hit the pavement - instead hit a bystander.

Andrew Bacevich, a military historian and retired US army colonel, wrote in 2006 that "such mistakes have occurred routinely, with moral and political consequences that have been too long ignored." That assessment is borne out by the leaked reports, which describe almost 14,000 "escalation of force" incidents – the army's euphemism for often-violent altercations that occurred at checkpoints and near patrols.

About 680 civilians were killed in these incidents between 2004 and 2010, with more than 2,000 wounded. ...

In several incidents – none of them fatal – soldiers fired warning shots at deaf and nearly-blind men who could not see or hear their verbal warnings. Several mentally ill men were killed: In February 2005, for example, US soldiers shot a man in Mahmoudiya when he ran too close to an approaching convoy. They only later learned that he was mentally ill and often begged for food in the area near the convoy's route. ...

At least a half-dozen incidents involved Iraqi men transporting their pregnant wives or family members to hospitals.

But hell, man, all that was like totally the Iraqis' fault. The wunnerful US of A was over here, minding its own goddamn business, and Iraq made us go to war with it! Iraq was there, dude! THIS WILL NOT STAND. Just like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Mali, Libya blahblahblah are THERE.

They gotta stop that. Stop being there! Don't make America bring the genocide again!

Like I said, I'm totally stupid, but I think the lesson goes something like this: If you threaten the State itself or interfere with its plans, and especially if you threaten one of the State's armed, militarized branches, the State will go to war, including here at home. I don't mean "go to war" metaphorically. I mean the State will go to war. So I think we know what the response will be if/when there is widespread domestic unrest, when the economy further falls apart, for example. Entire neighborhoods cordoned off, whole blocks incinerated, checkpoints everywhere, people shot for any reason, or for no reason. Oh, yeah: no more fourth amendment for you, either (via). Well, it's not like you were doing anything with it. If you haven't done anything wrong, you don't have anything to hide, etc., etc., etc. And just to be safe, you don't want to be there. Yeah, where you are right now. Don't be there. And don't move. Haha. Gotcha!

Just as the fish rots from the head, the horrors start with the president. Why should Obama be the only one to have a Murder Program? It's only right that every police department should have its own Murder Program. Especially in war time.

What we're now seeing is further proof of an argument I've made for the last several years. It can be stated very briefly:

In addition to pursuing its goal of global hegemony, the United States government uses foreign countries as a lethal laboratory in which to practice the techniques it intends to use domestically, at home within U.S. borders.

Welcome to Afghanistan.

This is just the beginning.