“The cost of my freedom, I am told, is eternal vigilance. I live in the richest country in the world, the nation which monopolizes over a fourth of the earth’s resources, and am still imprisoned when exercising my so-called freedom of speech. I’m to believe, instead, that our freedom depends on using the U.S. military and contracted mercenaries as super-Vigilantes in Afghanistan’s impoverished provinces, targeting the loosely connected, oftentimes illiterate and highly unskilled network of the Taliban. U.S. military strategy commands soldiers to enter villages, raid homes, take prisoners, maim, wound and kill targeted “bad guys”, possibly along with their families, and destroy all opportunity for a collective livelihood and security in Afghanistan. What’s more, thousands of people are stranded in IDP camps, homeless and barefoot and uncertain as to why the U.S. ever invaded their land in the first place. Is this the price of my freedom?” (Jerica Arents). Full article.