The Kandahar Rampage shows Our Injustice

When a rogue US soldier [staff sergeant] murdered sixteen people in Afghanistan on Sunday, the first thought that popped into my head was; I wonder how outraged the American people will be? How long will this story trend on Twitter? Will the news outlets run this story insufferably? The Kandahar Rampage [as it is being called] is not an extraordinary event. In fact, it is quite usual. US Soldiers have been known to inexplicably kill civilians. But, this is war--it is expected to have a few loose canons or accidents.  

So, what do we say? The staff sergeant must have had a mental condition and slipped through the psych evaluations. And maybe no other fellow soldiers observed any oddities. But what would be an oddity is this case? We expect a soldier’s vocabulary to include kill and towel head. The incident itself will experience retaliations and more of our soldiers will die [Recently, six US soldiers died in Afghanistan after the burning of the Quran] and the people of Afghanistan will view the United States as evil occupiers more than liberators. This is typical; this is expected, and this is not concerning.

What concerns me is not the actual incident but the response. In general, the American people were not outraged [I figure most did not even hear of the story]. The news outlets did not run the story on a continuous loop. On the contrary, the news outlets barely played the story past Sunday morning. Finally, the story did not trend on twitter compared to the impressive three days or so trend of Joseph Kony [#stopkony].  Which gets me thinking; What if the masses paid attention to Joseph Kony when he was relevant a decade or two ago? There’s evil in the world and most people recognize it. However, sometimes we don’t give a story enough attention because we feel helpless. When there’s an opportunity to make a “difference” we see an outpour of people [look how Joseph Kony blazed through the web]. But when there is not an opportunity or an opportunity that requires a sacrifice, people are mute. 

The Kandahar Rampage will eventually become lost in history. Eventually, a book compiled on the atrocities of the Afghan war may include the incident. The next war will certainly have similar incidents. As we continue to be mute, injustice will continue and the unprincipled will rule. 

This article is not only about making military warfare cleaner.