The US Military Refuses to Own Up to Killing Civilians
Each year, Congress mandates the US military disclose how many civilian deaths it was responsible for globally. In its latest report, the Pentagon refused to acknowledge any — following a long history of failures to own up to documented killings of civilians.
Soldiers with the US military at a Southwest Asia airbase where they are waiting for a military flight to Iraq on December 21, 2009. (Mayra Beltran / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
There are constants in this world — occurrences you can count on. Sunrises and sunsets. The tides. That, day by day, people will be born and others will die.
Some of them will die in peace, but others, of course, in violence and agony.
For hundreds of years, the US military has been killing people. It’s been a constant of our history. Another constant has been American military personnel killing civilians, whether Native Americans, Filipinos, Nicaraguans, Haitians, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, Yemenis, and on and on. And there’s something else that’s gone along with those killings: a lack of accountability for them.
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