Star One Smart Blog's

(Caption: A man touches the body of a man who US Army soldiers said fired at them with an AK-47, after he was shot and killed near the village of Samir Kalacheh in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar on July 28, 2010. Though soldiers said they saw three men shooting at them and returned fire, killing one man and injuring another, local people were protesting that the dead man was a farmer from Samir Kalacha village.)

The lefties over at my favorite lefty photo-blog are crying and bemoaning this photo of a dead Taliban, saying this is why we are failing in Afghanistan, because "We see a dead Taliban. They see a dead farmer." One commenter, Meghan...

This picture made me so sad I had to go away and come back before I could comment. The Afghanis are present to this death, gathered around, very human and aware. The solder? Has his back to it and is transfixed by some militaristic gadgetry. Worse, the man in the beige robes has checked to see what the solder is doing, and noted the disrespect.

I could weep.

How's about being happy an American soldier did his job and is still alive, bitch?

My comment on the photo is as follows.

I'm sure Mr. Dead Taliban's parents didn't raise him for the sole purpose of dying because he was stupid enough to fire on American soldiers, thus bringing on a mostly self-inflicted death.

What this photo speaks to me is, firstly, I hope to hell this guy was the right guy that fired on our troops, that they nailed the right guy and not some innocent civilian; and secondly, if they got the right guy, then the object lesson to the rest of the Taliban is that they shouldn't fire on our boys; instead, they should tend to the crops they have planted in the fields.

That is all.

---