Barack Obama campaigned for the US presidency on a pledge to fight a smarter war. This means covert operations, drone strikes and assassinations.

For example, in 2009 US Commandos stormed a compound in Afghanistan that they believed was housing a Taliban cell. They killed 5 people, 3 of them were women, 2 of them pregnant. One was a senior police commander trained by the Americans to fight the Taliban. None were Taliban.

Instead of realising they had been fed bad intelligence and owning the fact that they had killed these people, the Americans dug the bullets out of the bodies of the people they had killed and then tried to blame it, alternately on the Taliban and also on an honour killing, implying that the women had been killed by their own murderous families.

America only admitted this cover-up after evidence was exposed in the form of a video taken weeks after the raid showing the leader of the raid, William McRaven – at the time the head of the most secretive and elite force available to the President of the United States (JSOC) – offering to sacrifice some sheep to the family in apology.

This is just one of many examples investigated by war correspondent, Jeremy Scahill in his book and documentary, ‘Dirty Wars’, detailing America’s failing ‘War on Terror’ and how their actions around the world are only serving to further radicalise people against them.

Dirty Wars will be shown at the New Zealand International Film Festival 2013.

www.dirtywars.org/jeremy-scahill

FURTHER DISCUSSION:

A Radio New Zealand (Kim Hill) interview with Scahill:

An RT interview with Scahill: