We don’t know anything about the gunman in Copenhagen who opened fire today on a cafe where they were holding a panel entitled, “”Art, blasphemy & the freedom of expression.” The event was to mark the 25-year anniversary of the Iranian fatwa against novelist Salman Rushdie. Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist notorious for depicting Mohammed as a dog, & Inna Shevchenko, a leader of FEMEN & open hater of Arabs & Islam, were in attendance but unharmed. One of the guises Islamophobia now uses is apparently freedom of art & expression.

One wonders why after Charlie Hebdo such an event would not be surrounded by a phalanx of security guards but it may have beefed up security since three cops were injured in the melee. Or were they the security guards Vilks now travels with? The Danish Prime Minister called it “a political assassination & thus a terrorist attack.” Nothing like a rush to judgement since they still haven’t apprehended the gunman & don’t know his motives.

We know there are extremists & psychos who identify with Islam; there are plenty of psychos who identify with Christianity (witness the Westboro church)–not to mention who identify with socialism. Until they apprehend the shooter we don’t know who he is or what motivates him. It’s very likely they’ll corner the guy & take him out because dead men don’t talk & they can make up any story they like. That isn’t apologetics nor is it conspiracy theory. Islamophobia is the gestalt of neoliberal capitalism justifying it’s many wars. Setting up loose cannons to pull this kind of action off is what agents provocateurs do.

We leave crime-solving to the Danish police. What matters to defenders of civil liberties is how this incident will be used against Muslims around the world. Already an Oregon talk show host said, “Muslims killing in the name of blasphemy has to stop! They either learn to live in a pluralistic society or we need to remove them from that society as an act of self defense.” That inflammatory statement is a call to violence for the loose cannons who hate Muslims & love war.

The only way to turn this tsunami of hatred back is to stand against the wars justified by Islamophobia & to stand with Palestinians. There are spring antiwar marches planned demanding “No US wars in Afghanistan & Iraq!” There will be rallies & forums building the economic & cultural boycott of Israel. Be there or be square.

This haunting photo is 7-year-old Khalid after his shrapnel wounds were treated by US army medics in the Korengal Valley in northeastern Afghanistan. It was taken in 2007 by Lynsey Addario, then a NY Times photojournalist, but first published in her recent memoir “It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love & War” where she describes its unsavory political history & the role of media in covering for US war crimes.

Korengal Valley is a sliver of mountainous terrain only six-miles long & a half-mile wide but for the duration of the war it has been a focus of intense US-NATO land & aerial assault because it borders the area of Pakistan where US drones & the Pakistani air force have been attempting to bomb out the Taliban. An estimated one-fifth of all combat in Afghanistan occurs in Korengal & 70% of US-NATO bombs are dropped in the area.

Addario was assigned along with writer Elizabeth Rubin to cover the area for the NY Times Magazine in 2007 at the same time British photojournalist Tim Hetherington & writer Sebastian Junger were assigned there by Vanity Fair magazine. Both teams were embedded with US troops.

The NY Times team went there originally to report the affects of massive bombing on civilians, including what Rubin referred to as “collateral damage.” (When you start talking the language of the military you might consider un-embedding your head from the Pentagon’s ass.) The article shifted from less about civilian deaths to a profile of Captain Dan Kearney, in charge of a US platoon. On a followup trip, Rubin’s video documentation primarily follows Kearney (referred to by Rubin as Dan) & his platoon as they try to take out the Taliban.

Originally, the NY Times Magazine was going to publish this photo of Khalid with Rubin’s article. But just days before publication, fact checkers at the NY Times asked for evidence the injuries were caused by bombing shrapnel. Since the story had shifted from civilian deaths to hunting the Taliban & glorifying Kearney, the photo wasn’t so relevant anymore but this was one of the few photos of civilians injured or killed by bombing. Addario, Rubin, & even Captain Kearney agreed it was from shrapnel because they were present when Afghan elders brought the boy for treatment & said he was injured the previous night when the US bombed a compound where the boy lived. The NY Times instead took the word of public relations officers from the US military who said that could not be verified. Addario protested the blatant censorship to the NY Times, which did not use the photo because it does not suit the Pentagon script about the US-NATO war. (Addario doesn’t tell us much about her views on the war.)

Hetherington & Junger were also embedded with a US army company in Korengal Valley & made an industry out of their work. Combined, they’ve produced three documentaries & each a book on the experience. Their 2010 film, “Restrepo” was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary & received several other awards. A sequel by Junger (Hetherington was killed in 2011 during the US-NATO war in Libya) using Hetherington’s footage was produced in 2014. Hetherington received many awards for his work.

Like Rubin, Junger & Hetherington focused on the human experience & emotional distress of US soldiers using the film tagline, “This is what war feels like.” Some reviewers faulted the documentaries for divorcing the personal trauma of soldiers from the politics of the war. In fact, that’s baloney. Both Junger & Hetherington supported US-NATO wars in Afghanistan, Libya, & elsewhere & detested those who opposed intervention. At his death, Hetherington was feted by the Pentagon, right-wing veterans, & people like Senator John McCain.

Focusing on soldiers was their way to ennoble the US-NATO war. Ignoring the affects of fighting & bombing in Korengal Valley on Afghan civilians was an expression of colonialism, white supremacy, & pro-war ardency. Afghans were intentionally excluded in that tagline, “This is what war feels like” because to racist, colonial thinkers what Afghans feel like when they’re being bombed to smithereens is of no consequence whatsoever.

Join the spring antiwar protests demanding “US out of Afghanistan!” “US out of Iraq!”

(Photo by Lynsey Addario)