Photos of Soldiers With Afghan Corpses the Latest Outrage for U.S. Occupation of Afghanistan

DemocracyNow.org - We get reaction to two photographs published by the Los Angeles Times that show U.S. soldiers posing with the corpses and body parts of dead Afghans. "If we don't address the agreements that the U.S. and Australian governments and other governments are making for long-term war strategy in Afghanistan, we are heading for an increase in violence in this part of the world ... more serious than the Kabul attacks," says Hakim, Coordinator for Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, based in Kabul, Afghanistan. Meanwhile, several NATO allies have promised to underwrite Afghanistan's armed forces after foreign troops depart. The United States and other nations plan to retreat from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and hand the security issue over to Afghan security forces.

Democracy Now! also interviews journalist Anand Gopal, who has covered the Afghanistan war for years. Watch

In the interview Gopal says, "They keep talking about rotten apples ... But you have to wonder how many rotten apples you have to see before you realize that the tree itself is a problem." Gopal adds, "I think (the photos) shock us actually more than they shock Afghans. ... From the Afghan perspective, we've had troops urinating on corpses, a massacre of 17 civilians, air strikes, night raids, troops cutting off fingers for sport, and so for Afghans this is part and parcel of the experience of being in war."

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