Written by Thomas Magstadt   

"[T]here are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know."

~Former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld

Afghanistan. The battleground for America's longest war. And now the scene of one of the most horrific high-profile massacres since My Lai. More details of the murderous rampage of a US Army soldier that left 16 Afghan villagers dead are emerging with each passing day, but there are still many question that remain unanswered.

WHAT WE KNOW (OR THINK) WE KNOW

We now know the name of the alleged killer: Staff Sgt. Robert Bales. We know that the dead included 9 children and 3 women, that the killings occurred in three villages, that they were carried out methodically as in a premeditated act, and that in one case the bodies were set afire.

We know that Bales served three previous tours of duty – in Iraq – before being deployed to Afghanistan. That he is married and has two young children. That we was injured twice, sustaining a head injury (concussion) on one occasion and losing part of a foot in separate incident. That he had undergone psychiatric tests and was deemed by Army medical doctors to be fit mentally and physically fit for redeployment.

We know that Bales was quickly spirited out of Afghanistan, that US authorities are saying he will be tried in a US military court, and that he is currently incarcerated in an isolated cell in the Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

WHAT WE KNOW WE DON'T KNOW

People who know Bales (at least the ones who have been interviewed in the media) all claim to be utterly shocked that he could have done such a thing. Not that such a thing could happen, but that Bales could have done it. They all describe him as good-natured, smiling, a nice guy with a sunny disposition. According to one of his former commanding officers, he's a soldier's soldier with a can-do attitude. So (if indeed he's guilty as charged) what caused him to commit such an unspeakable atrocity?

Had Bales sustained severe brain damage that went undetected? Or is he perhaps a cold blooded killer who knew exactly what he was doing and thinks killing Afghan villagers is an act of valor? Was he suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? Does PTSD really exist or is it a clinical invention conjured to explain away odious acts we can't excuse but prefer not to face head-on? We don't know the answers to any of these questions. Truth to tell, nobody does.

WHAT WE DON'T KNOW WE DON'T KNOW

News here about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is now sparse and elliptical. Anybody who really wants to know what's going on anywhere in the world these days, however, can get a variety of viewpoints from the BBC to Al Jazeera and Xinhua, to Pravda, Le Monde, the Guardian, the Sydney Morning Herald News, and, of course, the Economist, as well as many other sources to numerous to mention. It's all there on the Internet.

Reading the foreign press, it becomes crystal clear that we don't know what we don't know – about the massacre or about the war that is its context and quite possibly its cause. For example, Afghan villagers and leaders at the highest level, including President Karzai himself, insist that these killings were not – and could not have been – the work of one individual. What they are saying, in effect, is that it's a cover-up, that Bales is a scapegoat, that it's now all about damage control for the US – to avoid implicating Operation Enduring Freedom, the high-sounding name given to the invasion and decade-long military occupation of Afghanistan.

Not only do most Afghans not believe that Bales acted alone, but much of the rest of the world doesn't believe it either. Why? Because the world opinion has turned decisively against the US now. That's the bitter fruit of senseless wars we've fought in faraway place like Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, against people and governments that posed no palpable military threat to the United States.

Is it any wonder that people everywhere, even our closes allies, are predisposed to believe the worst about our government. And we still don't get it. In the eyes of the world, perhaps that's the most damning fact of all.

We are also blissfully unaware of the anger we cause when our soldiers commit unspeakable crimes against another country's citizens on its own territory and our government refuses to let that country try the accused in its own courts. Finally, we don't know that our government insists our allies commit troops to wars we start, often without prior consultation, but seldom allows our own troops to be placed under foreign command and never above the tactical level.

WHY WE DON'T WHAT WE DON'T KNOW

We don't know that war is a very profitable enterprise for a vast array of major US corporations, including the major media, because there is a wide-spectrum conspiracy of silence about it. War is big business. There are defense installations and industries in virtually every congressional district. Arms manufacturers, oil and pharmaceutical companies, electronics industries, and a long list of others – including service industries involved in feeding, clothing, housing, and healing America's professional warriors and privileged officer class – all prosper from war and fear the prospect of peace. America spends as much on arms as the rest of the world combined. Our government deliberately understates the figures and exaggerates the threats we face.

Was Donald Rumsfeld an aberration or the embodiment of a pugilistic culture? What about Teddy Roosevelt? Or James Polk?

We can blame our leaders for lying to us because they do. We can blame the military-industrial complex and big business for caring more about profit than peace, placing lucre above life. It's true.

But what about us? The great silent middle class. The 99%. We are, after all, "the people", the nation - the real America.

Are we not to blame, too? Our complacency. Our obsession with the almighty dollar. Our addiction to oil and automobiles. Our sense of superiority. Our willful ignorance of the dark side of our own history. Our indifference to the plight of others. And, finally, our arrogance.

We think we're so smart because we're so strong. We think that might makes right. We're so wrong.