Such inhumanity the US government brings everywhere they go, everything they touch, either intentionally, or through wilful ignorance of the likely consequences of what they do. Exceptionalism is only exceptional in how dangerous it is.
In the last 6 months 2 young men driven by resentment and let-down of their hopes have driven across country to kill. One man had wanted to play pro-football; he entered a Park Ave NYC office building that housed the NFL HQ & murdered people, including a security guard. A special ops Afghan, drug addict, from a CIA no questions asked shoot-em up unit, drove across country to join the brigands in DC & shoots a young soldier, the way he'd been doing in Khost, tutored & protected by our CIA. Both broken, driven to murder.
While I am sure there are many books that set the stage for this tragedy, is seems a not unsuspected coda to “Ghost Wars: A Secret History of the CIA…”, by Steve Coll, and “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA”, by Tim Weiner. While so much of the darkness of what that agency has done, and continues to do, is known, there continue to be new revelations like this article, that shock, surprise… and yet come as no surprise at all. The CIA continues, all over the world (currently in Venezuela, reportedly) to enable and promote the worst of what America does. Shameful! Watch as everyone in government point fingers… and ultimately do nothing other than provide more funding to the deep state.
One terribly sad aspect of this is that the average American citizen knows virtually nothing about any of this, and endorses the view that America is an exceptional force for good in the world and holds to a high moral standard. "Legacy of Ashes" is a great example - the story that book explains so well, that is, one deadly failure after another, was written entirely based upon open source material - no anonymous quotes or background stuff - this information is available to anyone, but yet, so few know it that it's impossible to generate the political will to trim the military and/or intelligence forces from the still-growing behemoth it is. Where are the outrage and the marches in the streets at what the Trump administration is doing to Venezuela, with more to come? Today the story (anonymous source, so...) is that Trump told Maduro to leave the country with his family now to be safe, or else suffer the consequences. Gee, I wonder what those might be??? twenty years from now we will be reading a book about this military assault on Venezuela and all our worst speculations will be confirmed or prove conservative.
Assuming that the information is this article is valid, which it certainly appears to be, this is yet another example of the brutality of empire that rebounds on the home front, a form of "blowback." The empirical power creates chaos in a foreign country based upon a ludicrously exaggerated pretext, recruits locals to assist with deadly and highly unpopular violence, is forced to bring those psychologically damaged persons to the U.S. to prevent their deaths at the hands of the reconstituted foreign government when the military excursion plays out in unavoidable failure. Sadly, in the U.S., there is little support for the Afghans spirited out of the country, and they experience financial difficulty, cultural alienation, and building resentment with which psychologically damaged people cannot possibly cope with. Psychiatric care is not readily available, and the Afghan, no doubt suffering from PTSD (even without invoking a drug issue, which would amplify the whole disaster), breaks down. Predictably he engages in the behavior he knows so well and is effective at, killing people, now turned against the very military for whom he had engaged in those same brutally violent behaviors against his own countrymen. This scenario has a certain logic to it, yes, but the fundamental issue is that of a military-industrial complex that is obsessed with and profits from weaponry and war, garners a massive percentage of the U.S. budget, profits a handful of oligarchs and executives, and takes advantage of every opportunity to project force. The military power is not only morally bankrupt, and outrageously expensive and inefficient, but also misguided and clumsily done, which leads inevitably to the creation of individuals like Mr. Lakanwal. Recall that the U.S. military budget is passed with overwhelming bipartisan support with almost no challenges from anyone in a position of power or influence. As a nation, we own all of this violence, both in Afghanistan and when it returns home.
Additional comment: The LA-Times published an AP article about the shooter. I felt compelled to write to this journalist, as follows:
Ms. Famiri:
Your article in the LA Times about Mr. Lakanwal's unraveling mentions just in passing and with no other details that he worked in the CIA-backed Zero Unit in Afghanistan.
This link at Drop Site News provides details about Zero Unit.
The activities of this military unit included brutal murders and kidnappings of his own countrymen, as targeted by the U.S. forces that directed him.
As an internal medicine physician who has examined many police officers, firefighters and others who have experienced traumatic events, this man's military experiences go a long way to explain his psychological difficulties and his inability to integrate into U.S. society, especially since this was a foreign social setting where he was provided little in the way of support, despite the fact that he experienced the trauma he did on behalf of U.S. interests, in his understanding.
I strongly encourage you to verify the information in the Drop Site article, and include that aspect of his story in future articles, so your readers will be better able to understand why he decompensated as he did, and carried out the behaviors he did. After all, in his last action he returned to behavior with which he was intimately familiar, and very skilled at.
Thank you for writing to this reporter...I read several articles before I came upon the one here at Drop Site that left me wondering why why why would this man drive across the country to do such a thing. Now I have some understanding. I hope this story makes it to the MSM.
The Zero Units were allowed to operate with total impunity for years, and now we’re seeing the consequences of that lack of accountability unfold in the U.S. itself. Instead of blaming evacuations or political rivals, maybe we should confront the policies and agencies that created these units in the first place.
Thank you for this article. And thank you for uses journalists and sources who are in the places being reported on. I have always wished their was no such thing as the CIA. They are the ones running our govt no matter which party has been voted in
Everything the US does on foreign land they bring back home. So, when are we going to get retaliation for the weapons the Ukrainians sold on the Black Market to those Mexican cartels? And who's going to house those militant fascist NAZIs in Ukraine who shoot their own in the back if they surrender? In 1947 the British government secretly transported 8,000 Ukrainian Nazi SS soldiers to Britain & Canada & the USA the "superior" SS founding the CIA, NATO, NASA, & the groundwork for the EU. And, we also imported the "Biologists" from the Japanese unit 731 that inflicted carnage on the Chinese but we wanted their bioweapons. You think we're going to behave better than back then when we at least had some morality?
Recruitment--especially of young people-- to such brutality and killing should be understood to be a violation of human rights and perhaps a crime against humanity. This should not be taken to exonerate those who kill, but to cast light on those who recruit, and on those who order them to recruit.
Our CIA began its devious operations in Afghanistan long before the Russians left in 1989 & worked closely with infamous drug kingpins such as the Uzbek warlord, Dostum & others. Lakanwal was recruited at 15 into his CIA sponsored hunter/killer team. He was a child soldier & like the Taliban, war was all they knew & he undoubtedly had PTSD & TBI. The information in this article helped fill out our understanding. However, I just read that a Taliban hunter/killer group of their own, Yarmouk 60, hunted down former CIA death squad members living abroad. I read that Lakanwal was contacted by this group & blackmailed into shooting at soldiers in DC, telling him that if he didn’t do this, his family in Afghanistan would be murdered (& this happens ). If this is indeed accurate it might flesh out why he traveled from Washington to DC.
Thanks for this. It provides context for understanding why he followed through on his decision to shoot and kill this time. I would like to know what he was thinking when he made the decision to shoot and kill this time.
Such inhumanity the US government brings everywhere they go, everything they touch, either intentionally, or through wilful ignorance of the likely consequences of what they do. Exceptionalism is only exceptional in how dangerous it is.
Thank you for this article.
Why does this information not come as a surprise in the least.
In the last 6 months 2 young men driven by resentment and let-down of their hopes have driven across country to kill. One man had wanted to play pro-football; he entered a Park Ave NYC office building that housed the NFL HQ & murdered people, including a security guard. A special ops Afghan, drug addict, from a CIA no questions asked shoot-em up unit, drove across country to join the brigands in DC & shoots a young soldier, the way he'd been doing in Khost, tutored & protected by our CIA. Both broken, driven to murder.
Totally on-point.
While I am sure there are many books that set the stage for this tragedy, is seems a not unsuspected coda to “Ghost Wars: A Secret History of the CIA…”, by Steve Coll, and “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA”, by Tim Weiner. While so much of the darkness of what that agency has done, and continues to do, is known, there continue to be new revelations like this article, that shock, surprise… and yet come as no surprise at all. The CIA continues, all over the world (currently in Venezuela, reportedly) to enable and promote the worst of what America does. Shameful! Watch as everyone in government point fingers… and ultimately do nothing other than provide more funding to the deep state.
One terribly sad aspect of this is that the average American citizen knows virtually nothing about any of this, and endorses the view that America is an exceptional force for good in the world and holds to a high moral standard. "Legacy of Ashes" is a great example - the story that book explains so well, that is, one deadly failure after another, was written entirely based upon open source material - no anonymous quotes or background stuff - this information is available to anyone, but yet, so few know it that it's impossible to generate the political will to trim the military and/or intelligence forces from the still-growing behemoth it is. Where are the outrage and the marches in the streets at what the Trump administration is doing to Venezuela, with more to come? Today the story (anonymous source, so...) is that Trump told Maduro to leave the country with his family now to be safe, or else suffer the consequences. Gee, I wonder what those might be??? twenty years from now we will be reading a book about this military assault on Venezuela and all our worst speculations will be confirmed or prove conservative.
Assuming that the information is this article is valid, which it certainly appears to be, this is yet another example of the brutality of empire that rebounds on the home front, a form of "blowback." The empirical power creates chaos in a foreign country based upon a ludicrously exaggerated pretext, recruits locals to assist with deadly and highly unpopular violence, is forced to bring those psychologically damaged persons to the U.S. to prevent their deaths at the hands of the reconstituted foreign government when the military excursion plays out in unavoidable failure. Sadly, in the U.S., there is little support for the Afghans spirited out of the country, and they experience financial difficulty, cultural alienation, and building resentment with which psychologically damaged people cannot possibly cope with. Psychiatric care is not readily available, and the Afghan, no doubt suffering from PTSD (even without invoking a drug issue, which would amplify the whole disaster), breaks down. Predictably he engages in the behavior he knows so well and is effective at, killing people, now turned against the very military for whom he had engaged in those same brutally violent behaviors against his own countrymen. This scenario has a certain logic to it, yes, but the fundamental issue is that of a military-industrial complex that is obsessed with and profits from weaponry and war, garners a massive percentage of the U.S. budget, profits a handful of oligarchs and executives, and takes advantage of every opportunity to project force. The military power is not only morally bankrupt, and outrageously expensive and inefficient, but also misguided and clumsily done, which leads inevitably to the creation of individuals like Mr. Lakanwal. Recall that the U.S. military budget is passed with overwhelming bipartisan support with almost no challenges from anyone in a position of power or influence. As a nation, we own all of this violence, both in Afghanistan and when it returns home.
Additional comment: The LA-Times published an AP article about the shooter. I felt compelled to write to this journalist, as follows:
Ms. Famiri:
Your article in the LA Times about Mr. Lakanwal's unraveling mentions just in passing and with no other details that he worked in the CIA-backed Zero Unit in Afghanistan.
This link at Drop Site News provides details about Zero Unit.
The activities of this military unit included brutal murders and kidnappings of his own countrymen, as targeted by the U.S. forces that directed him.
As an internal medicine physician who has examined many police officers, firefighters and others who have experienced traumatic events, this man's military experiences go a long way to explain his psychological difficulties and his inability to integrate into U.S. society, especially since this was a foreign social setting where he was provided little in the way of support, despite the fact that he experienced the trauma he did on behalf of U.S. interests, in his understanding.
I strongly encourage you to verify the information in the Drop Site article, and include that aspect of his story in future articles, so your readers will be better able to understand why he decompensated as he did, and carried out the behaviors he did. After all, in his last action he returned to behavior with which he was intimately familiar, and very skilled at.
Thank you for writing to this reporter...I read several articles before I came upon the one here at Drop Site that left me wondering why why why would this man drive across the country to do such a thing. Now I have some understanding. I hope this story makes it to the MSM.
The Zero Units were allowed to operate with total impunity for years, and now we’re seeing the consequences of that lack of accountability unfold in the U.S. itself. Instead of blaming evacuations or political rivals, maybe we should confront the policies and agencies that created these units in the first place.
Twenty years. Some people got rich. Others got killed. The US taxpayer got screwed.
Thank you for this article. And thank you for uses journalists and sources who are in the places being reported on. I have always wished their was no such thing as the CIA. They are the ones running our govt no matter which party has been voted in
Everything the US does on foreign land they bring back home. So, when are we going to get retaliation for the weapons the Ukrainians sold on the Black Market to those Mexican cartels? And who's going to house those militant fascist NAZIs in Ukraine who shoot their own in the back if they surrender? In 1947 the British government secretly transported 8,000 Ukrainian Nazi SS soldiers to Britain & Canada & the USA the "superior" SS founding the CIA, NATO, NASA, & the groundwork for the EU. And, we also imported the "Biologists" from the Japanese unit 731 that inflicted carnage on the Chinese but we wanted their bioweapons. You think we're going to behave better than back then when we at least had some morality?
"Killing Hope" by William Blum is a good book about things like this.
Recruitment--especially of young people-- to such brutality and killing should be understood to be a violation of human rights and perhaps a crime against humanity. This should not be taken to exonerate those who kill, but to cast light on those who recruit, and on those who order them to recruit.
https://theintercept.com/2020/12/18/afghanistan-cia-militia-01-strike-force/
Our CIA began its devious operations in Afghanistan long before the Russians left in 1989 & worked closely with infamous drug kingpins such as the Uzbek warlord, Dostum & others. Lakanwal was recruited at 15 into his CIA sponsored hunter/killer team. He was a child soldier & like the Taliban, war was all they knew & he undoubtedly had PTSD & TBI. The information in this article helped fill out our understanding. However, I just read that a Taliban hunter/killer group of their own, Yarmouk 60, hunted down former CIA death squad members living abroad. I read that Lakanwal was contacted by this group & blackmailed into shooting at soldiers in DC, telling him that if he didn’t do this, his family in Afghanistan would be murdered (& this happens ). If this is indeed accurate it might flesh out why he traveled from Washington to DC.
Thanks for this. It provides context for understanding why he followed through on his decision to shoot and kill this time. I would like to know what he was thinking when he made the decision to shoot and kill this time.