When innocent men, woman and children are killed, it is called murder, so why does this not translate onto the pages of what we read as we ingest our daily fill of mainstream media? Writes Reuben Brand.

The gruesome murder of 16 innocent people, nine of whom where children, by a US soldier in Afghanistan is the latest tragedy to hit the already war ravaged country.

Only weeks after US forces burned copies of the Qur’an, preceded by US Marines urinating on dead Taliban corpses and posing with a Nazi SS flag (the list sadly goes on) Afghanistan is rocked by yet another tragic event, perpetrated by those purporting to bring freedom and democracy to the region.

On Sunday night, a US soldier broke into the homes of innocent Afghan families, went from room to room and woke his victims before violently murdering them in their beds and then burning some of the bodies.

The grim facts of war are often hard to get acquainted with, especially when those who are doing the dirty work are supposed to be the ‘good’ guys, if there is such a thing.  Obviously a lot of the mainstream media find it hard to call a spade a spade and instead prefer to use terms like “allegedly shot” when it comes to recanting the details of such a gruesome crime committed by the so called ‘good’ guys in this deeply unpopular war.

In any other country, at any other time, a person who breaks into three separate houses late at night, stalks their victims and wakes them before brutally killing them would be labelled a mass murderer. According to the FBI, a mass murder is described as “a number of murders (four or more) occurring during the same incident, with no distinctive time period between the murders. These events typically involved a single location, where the killer murdered a number of victims in an ongoing incident.”

FOX News is a prime example of how the mainstream media frame stories to suit their political bent. One article in particular covering these events highlights the discriminations and bias within their reportage’.

Instead of using such, let’s say, evocative terms as ‘murder,’ the flagship of journalistic integrity, FOX News (did I say flagship? Apologies, I meant shipwreck) decided to go with a more subtle approach. In a desperately pathetic attempt to re-package the tragedy that unfolded in Afghanistan involving the US soldier, FOX News, the “Fair and Balanced” media outlet, published a piece highlighting the imminent threats and revenge attacks vowed by the Taliban.

The first paragraph reads, “The Taliban is vowing revenge against the U.S. after an American soldier allegedly shot and killed 16 Afghan civilians in a Sunday rampage.” The use of the term “allegedly shot,” is an interesting choice considering there are multiple eyewitnesses and the soldier is currently in custody after returning to base, post the bloody massacre. There is nothing “alleged” about it, a US soldier murdered 16 innocent Afghans. Pure and simple.

This language continues throughout the piece with the opening paragraphs brimming with vitriolic threats from those unseen foes, the very nemesis and threat to Western civilisation itself, the Taliban, who promise to “take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single martyr.” Adding that “American savages” committed the “blood-soaked and inhumane crime.”

Quite the opening paragraph indeed and one that resembles a very poor attempt, by FOX News, at re-asserting in the minds of the audience that the Taliban is the real threat in this story. Which in turn numbs the pain for the fact that “one of ours” committed such a heinous crime.

The truth is a hard pill to swallow at times, but in this case it is clear that “American savages” did commit the “blood-soaked and inhumane crime.”

It is not until paragraph six that our friends over at FOX News reluctantly bring the perpetrator of these crimes into account and state that “The veteran American army staff sergeant allegedly left his base…” to carry out the killings. Again, the soldier only “allegedly left his base,” according to FOX News.

It is as absurd a statement as it would be for FOX News to report that “grass is allegedly green” and “water is allegedly wet,” although I wouldn’t put it past them.

To conclude, the article leaves the reader with Senator John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, reminding everyone how the 9/11 attacks originated in Afghanistan. Once again, re-stating the idea that somehow Afghanistan is the real threat in this issue. Oh, he also said how the “alleged incident” could not be explained.

Interesting to note how the violent deaths of 16 people have progressed in the piece to become nothing more than a mere “alleged incident.” Well heck, perhaps it didn’t even happen at all? Obviously the authors of this mess that has been passed off as journalism don’t want to leave a foul taste in the mouths of their readers as they wrap up their coverage.

The closing paragraph is a half-baked attempt at a distraction from the unpleasantly of the issue at hand and leaves no doubt in the minds of the reader that the Taliban are the real threat - and in true patriotic style, FOX News leaves their avid audience with this tasty morsel to ponder.

“Panjawi, the town where the alleged shootings occurred, is inside a rural Taliban stronghold, and is just south of the birthplace of the militant group’s senior leaders, including chief Mullah Omar…”

If the birthplace of Mullah Omar isn’t enough to distract the less discerning reader from the fact that a US soldier just killed 16 innocent people, I don’t know what is. Suddenly the Taliban are once again the “bad guys” and everything is back to normal.

Now if this is but a case of FOX News taking the high road and giving the soldier his legal right of being innocent until proven guilty when using such terms as “allegedly,” then why do they not afford the same courtesy to others when reporting on such issues?

In other FOX News articles we see the stark discrimination within their reportage.

“Two American soldiers were killed Thursday in a shooting by an Afghan soldier.”

Should this not read “…in an alleged shooting by an Afghan soldier”?

Or how about this, “Taliban suicide bombers armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked a large police station in northwest Pakistan early Friday, killing four officers.”

Where is our favourite word?  If FOX News were playing by the rules it would say “…allegedly killing four officers.”

All is not lost though, for apparently FOX News does use such evocative terms as ‘murder’ after all - but only when Americans have been killed, of course.

“Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is condemning what he calls the murder of two American military officers in Afghanistan’s capital.”

Such wonderful double standards.

To be fair, it is not only FOX News that succumb to their particular political bias when reporting, as it is prevalent in most mainstream media - but the way war is framed and the role the media play has been perfectly presented in these pieces of FOX News coverage - the undiscerning audience has no choice but to swallow the spin as it is laid out in the opening paragraphs and then re-enforced in the conclusion.

The taking of innocent life is a heinous crime, regardless of who commits it. The taking of innocent life is murder and in this particular case is also a war crime. These facts should not be skipped over or sanitised.

A 718 page document that contains the names, addresses, phone numbers and activities of thousands of Syrian dissidents is being used as a hit list by the Syrian regime to systematically target its own citizens.

Mother Jones: “The infamy of Syria’s Mukhabarat intelligence service is well known. For the past year, reports of it rounding up and torturing Syrian activists have steadily trickled out of the country. “When they took me in, they put me face down on the floor, and started beating me with a cable on the soles of my feet, my legs and back,” a Syrian protester told Human Rights Watch last year. “They were asking, ‘Why did you go to the demonstration? Who paid you to go? Who made you go?’ They just wanted me to confess to something, did not matter what.”

US Marines: Not the sharpest tools in the shed, but I guess one only need a blunt object to bludgeon a country to death. Writes Reuben Brand.

Burning copies of the Qur’an in Afghanistan - just another day at the office for the pride of America, the US Marines.

Hundreds of angry Afghans have vented their fury as violent protests around the country continue after reports that the US Military had burned copies of the Qur’an.

Two US Soldiers were gunned down and killed on Thursday at a military base in Kandahar less than one week after two Senior US officers were killed at the Afghan Interior Ministry.

These killings really highlight the overt frustration of the Afghan people at the current occupation and puts further strain on Western relations in the region.

The US has since apologised for the inappropriate conduct towards the religious material and has called the incident “deeply unfortunate.”

Leon Panetta, the US secretary of defence said in a statement that “These actions do not represent the views of the United States military. We honour and respect the religious practices of the Afghan people, without exception.”

“We honour and respect the religious practices of the Afghan people,” an interesting statement indeed, considering earlier this year footage of US soldiers urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban insurgents circulated the internet.

The soldiers can be heard laughing and saying “golden like a shower,” “Yeeeaaah,” and “have a great day, buddy!” as they stand over the dead bodies and relieve themselves.

The anonymous person who uploaded the video wrote “Scout sniper team 4 with 3^rd battalion 2nd marines out of camp lejeune peeing on dead talibans.”

Was this the same Scout Sniper team that US Marines supposedly paid tribute to with the aid of a Nazi SS flag? But of course, this was yet another rookie mistake and in true US fashion, none of the soldiers were reprimanded due to the lack of malicious intent.

According to Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton, Calif. ” The Marines mistakenly believed the “SS” in the shape of white lightning bolts on the blue flag were a nod to sniper scouts - not members of Adolf Hitler’s special unit that murdered millions of Jews, gypsies and others.”

Is Nazi iconography and memorabilia really that vague? I can’t wait until US Marines brandish a swastika, to which they will have no doubt “mistakenly believed” to be an ancient Buddhist Sun sign.

Unfortunately the actions of US Marines resonate more with Nazi sentiments than that of anything remotely Buddhist.

In 2010 twelve US Marines, who referred to themselves as “Kill Team,” murdered at least three unarmed, innocent Afghan civilians, including Gul Mudin, a 15 year old boy. They collected their body parts as trophies and photographed themselves posing with the dead bodies immediately after they were murdered, grinning and lifting the head of Gul Mudin up by the hair.

Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, the ringleader of “Kill Team,” apparently used medical shears to sever several fingers from his victims and kept them as a form of human trophy collecting. Gibbs also gave one of these body parts to a fellow Marine involved in the killings, Pfc. Andrew Holmes, who kept it in a zip-lock bag and tried to dry it out in order to “keep the finger forever.”

Last week’s outrage at the burning of copies of the Qur’an happened in Bagram, a small town in the Parwan Province, notorious for all the wrong reasons. In 2002 Dilawar and Habibullah, two detainees at Bagram prison were victims of such repeated torture, that it resulted in their deaths.

Both men had been shackled by the wrists to the ceiling of their cells and both incurred repeated, violent beatings. So bad were the injuries sustained, that the coroner for Dilawar, Dr Elizabeth Rouse, said “I’ve seen similar injuries in an individual run over by a bus.” Dr Rouse testified that had Dilawar survived the torture, his legs would have had to be amputated.

Some US interrogators involved in the deaths of both Dilawar and Habibullah were then sent to Iraq, where they were assigned to Abu Ghraib prison where the torture continued.

To date direct and indirect civilian deaths caused since the beginning of the war in 2001 in Afghanistan is approximately 17,611 – 37,208 people, who all had names, faces and families.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) there are over three million refugees originating from Afghanistan, over three hundred and fifty thousand Internally Displaced Persons and the total population of concern is now over 4.4 million people.

Let’s also not forget the incessant drone strikes that plague the countryside and kill indiscriminately – “collateral damage” is the official term.

Is this the legacy that the West will leave for the people of Afghanistan? A legacy of torture, terror and abuse?

If this is how US forces plan to “win the hearts and minds” of the people of Afghanistan, then I think we all have a lot to fear.