Scott Horton Interviews Karen Kwiatkowski
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Karen Kwiatkowski, columnist at lewrockwell.com and retired USAF lieutenant colonel, discusses the unauthorized hit squad of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, why those who complain about “tying the hands” of the military are really asking for a free pass to murder civilians, how the high military suicide rate indicates government-approval for killing doesn’t lessen individual guilt caused by immoral actions and why an economic embargo against Washington is long overdue.
MP3 here. (19:10)
Karen Kwiatkowski, Ph.D., is a retired USAF Lieutenant Colonel, who spent her final years in uniform working at the Pentagon’s Near East/South Asia bureau (NESA). Her assignment was to work on policy papers for the Secretary of Defense and other top brass at the Pentagon. Shortly thereafter, she was assigned to a newly-formed bureau inside the Pentagon called the Office of Special Plans, which was created to help the Pentagon deal with issues in Iraq.
Deeply frustrated and alarmed, Kwiatkowski, still on active duty, took the unusual step of penning an anonymous column of internal Pentagon dissent that was posted on the Internet by former Colonel David Hackworth, America’s most decorated veteran. She lives with her freedom-loving family in the Shenandoah Valley, and among other things, writes for lewrockwell.com.
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Good Luck
September 29th, 2010 at 4:10 am
Thou shalt not kill is a poor translation, it is really Thou shall not murder. The difference between murder and killing is the subject of piles of religious commentary.
lesterness
September 29th, 2010 at 6:00 am
So what's that magic word?
Jahbulon
September 29th, 2010 at 10:12 am
Might makes right.
Megawisca
September 29th, 2010 at 11:15 am
The truth shall set you free. This may be the first time I've ever heard anyone actually speak the truth about WAR. Thanks, Karen.
General Knowledge
September 29th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
I am reminded of a quote from Voltaire:
"Murderers are always punished, unless they kill in large numbers to the sound of trumpets."
thoughtbell
September 29th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Young men, lacking discussions with informed elders, lacking economic opportunity in general, are also plagued by a modern environment where those jobs that are available tend to be stultifying and demeaning. The impulse to be heroic, to have a rite of passage that "prooves" oneself is a human attribute that is starved through a cold workaday week. This needs to be part of the discussion. We need to inform young men BEFORE they kill; we need to inform them that resistance is heroic.
eCAHNomics
September 29th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Just started reading Manifest Destiny by Weinberg, originally published in 1935. Founding fathers are very much part of this biz of murdering others in the service of the natural rights of the U.S. Read up on your U.S. history, folks.
Lawrence
September 29th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Good Luck is incorrect about his supposed "translation" information. The word is, indeed, "kill." It is not the specific word "murder," and his claim to the contrary tells us more about what he would like it to mean than what was written. I refer you to the word studies of Laurence Vance at lewrockwell.com, and you can find out for yourself.
Lawrence
September 29th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Wrong, Good Luck. See comment below
peacenik
September 29th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
"All Quiet On The Western Front" should be required reading for all high school students.
ghouri
September 30th, 2010 at 3:48 am
This is the start of revelation as the crimes committed in Irak, Afghanistan and Pakistan too much and is shame for the humanity and all of this in the name of false pretex.
Lies have no border. We miss at large critics in the american civil society which is vital for the peace loving people.
bogi666
September 30th, 2010 at 7:12 am
Even the original movie for which Lew Ayers received an academy award is outstanding. Also, the Hiroshima memorial Peace museum has a picture of an shadow of a person who had been vaporized by the nuclear blast and his shadow are his remains. Very chilling. Also, today's military recruiters are going to high schools just as they did in the book and movie. Ayers return to the school where he and his classmates were recruited near he end is chilling. The recuiting strategy portrayed in the story is being resurrected for today's youth.
bogi666
September 30th, 2010 at 7:38 am
The only shame our war mongering politicians, militarists, MSM reciters of USG propaganda is unhealthy shame.Unhealthy shame is the basis for today's pretend christians with false doctrines[babel] preached at their churches[towers of babel] by their harlot preachers to their congregations of fools whom are abused, insulted and when their harlot preachers beg the fools for money they give it to them. Shame is when someone takes on the shame of another or deflects ones own shame to someone else whom is gullible to take it on as his own. Bush's lies about Iraq WMD's and never accepting responsibility for the lies, murders blaming Sadaam Hussein for having weapon;s he didn't have as the reason for the atrocity's Bush engineered is unhealthy shame deflected to others. Sadaam was telling the truth and it was Bush who lied. American society is fueled by unhealthy shame and it works because Americans are a population of mindlessness, unable to discern thoughts from facts,.
Good Luck
September 30th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
"lacking discussions with informed elders" – Pat Morita was the last one, he died in '05.
Mike Vasovski
October 5th, 2010 at 8:52 am
I heard Karen speak at a Future of Freedom Foundation event 2 or 3 years ago. Hearing her now in this interview, there's a decided uptick in the passion of her statements.
We toss the adjective "brilliant" around too loosely. In her case, it's completely deserved.
The combination of brains AND fire, serves the cause of peace, very well.
Dr. Mike Vasovski
2010 Candidate, US Congress, SC-03