Or, more likely, they hate us because stuff like this happens:
About midnight, 11 people, including three women; four children whose ages ranged from 6 to 9; and four men were executed inside the home of a village elder.
“They entered the room where the women and children were sleeping and they were all shot in the head,” [Fazal Mohammad Esaqzai, the deputy chief of the provincial council] said, adding that he was doubtful of the U.S. account suggesting the killings were the work of a lone gunman. “They were all shot in the head.”
After roughly an hour, residents in a nearby village heard gunshots, and they later discovered the corpses of five men inside two nearby houses, Esaqzai said.
Details about the attack are still coming out (though the US insists the massacre was done by just one US soldier). But for the moment, I can’t forget about the lengths to which the government went to bury this report showing how much animosity there is now between US forces and those we’re supposed to be working with and protecting.
Update: Here’s the very different story offered by a family member of those who were killed:
Haji Samad said 11 of his relatives were killed in one house, including his children. Pictures showed blood-splattered walls where the children were killed.
“They (Americans) poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them,” a weeping Samad told Reuters at the scene.
“I saw that all 11 of my relatives were killed, including my children and grandchildren,” said Samad, who had left the home a day earlier.
Neighbors said they awoke to crackling gunfire from American soldiers, whom they described as laughing and drunk.
“They were all drunk and shooting all over the place,” said neighbor Agha Lala, who visited one of the homes where the incident took place. “Their bodies were riddled with bullets.”
Update: Meanwhile, in polling done yesterday, before this killing, ABC found 60% of Americans say the Afghan War has not been worth fighting. While I’m not surprised by those numbers, I do wonder whether people have totally dissociated the war from 9/11?