Days of Revolt: US Veterans Say War on Terror Fuels Terrorism

In this episode of Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges discusses with two U.S. war veterans the devastating effects of U.S. military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, a “terror-producing factor” that can help explain the recent Brussels attacks.

Rory Fanning, an U.S. Army Ranger who deployed shortly after the beginning of the Afghanistan war in late 2002, emphasized how Washington insisted on maintaining military troops in Afghanistan despite the fact that the Taliban had already surrendered after the initial assaults by the U.S. air force and special forces.

Related: Afghanistan's Angels of Death

“But our job was to draw again the Talibans into the fight, because surrender wasn't good enough for our politicians after 9/11, we wanted blood,” he said.

He denounced practices of the U.S. troops back then, for instance when they were offering money to poor Afghan civilians who would turn in any “Taliban” fighter in exchange of money, who would just get rid of the people they did not like.

“I was only creating the conditions for more terrorist attacks,” said Fanning, who initially joined the military after 9/11 in a bid to prevent terror attacks. He admitted that a significant proportion of the people killed since 9/11 during the war on terror were civilians, which could only foster more resentment and conflict in his opinion.

As for Michael Hanes, who participated in the early invasion of Iraq, he recalled a similar experience. For instance, half of the intelligence they received about presumed fighters was "dead wrong."

“With the drones, he added, so many civilians have died, it is basically a terror-producing factor: if you loose your child, your mother, or any other relative, think of the desperation, it's easy to understand why someone would strap a bomb on themselves.”

Fanning also insisted on the racist culture inherent in the military. “The terms ‘sand nigger,’ ‘hajji,’ ‘barbarian,’ ‘terrorist,’ all of these things were thrown around as if the people there were subhuman,” Hanes added about how soldiers referred to Afghans.