A series of atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers, including the recent slaughter of 16 Afghan civilians, have drastically strained bilateral ties, and shows that the United States must urgently review its strategy and policies in the volatile Central Asian country.
The world's biggest power has fought an expensive war in Afghanistan for over a decade, which has cost it 500 billion U.S. dollars and 2,000 lives. Many say it is fighting a losing battle due to vehement Taliban resurgence.
To add insult to injury, the U.S. military is increasingly losing whatever moral support it has previously enjoyed among the Afghans, as U.S. soldiers have repeatedly committed severe offenses or violence against the civilians.
In the early hours of Sunday, a U.S. sergeant left a military base in the southern Kandahar province and went on a killing spree in a nearby village. He murdered 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, in cold blood.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai called it an "unforgivable action" and demanded an "explanation" from Washington, while his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama expressed his "shock and sadness" over the deed and promised to bring the perpetrator to justice.
The incident came at the heels of U.S. soldiers' burning of the Quran at a military base in Afghanistan in February, which sparked violent Afghan protests and the killing of six U.S. soldiers as revenge by Afghans.
In January, a video surfaced showing four U.S. marines urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters. The deed was regarded as blasphemy by Afghans and triggered outrage in the country.
The incidents show that some U.S. servicemen harbor resentment against the Afghan people, are insensitive to Afghans' religious beliefs, culture and customs, and lack basic respect toward their human dignity.
Clearly, the condescension and cold-bloodedness shown by some U.S. soldiers toward Afghans are detrimental to the U.S. anti-terrorist efforts in the country.
Obviously, the U.S. military has failed to impart a code of conduct to its soldiers in this regard and to discipline them for violation. Only if U.S. soldiers are taught to respect Afghans can they hope to secure their support.
U.S. authorities have vowed to bring stability and prosperity to the unrest-torn country and have invested a tremendous amount of funds and personnel for that end, but acts such as the recent killing of Afghan civilians will greatly undermine U.S. efforts and only lead to distrust and outrage toward Americans.
The incidents should also serve as a chance for the United States to seriously reflect upon its overall strategy and policies regarding Afghanistan.
Although 130,000 NATO troops, including 90,000 Americans, are deployed in Afghanistan, the Taliban movement, which was almost wiped out on Afghan soil in the U.S.-led war in late 2001, has made a strong comeback in recent years.
It seems that the Taliban fighters are poised to launch a major campaign after 2014, the deadline of NATO troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Some Taliban militants have vowed that they have time on their side and will rise to power again one day.
This has cast a huge shadow on the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, and raised doubts among many Americans about whether it is worthwhile to fight such a costly war.
U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said Sunday that "there's something profoundly wrong with the way we're approaching the whole region, and I think it's going to get substantially worse, not better. And I think that we're risking the lives of young men and women in a mission that may frankly not be doable."
A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Sunday said 55 percent of U.S. respondents said they think most Afghans oppose what the United States is trying to do there, and 60 percent said the war in Afghanistan has been "not worth fighting."
Apparently, the U.S. government and military are between a rock and a hard place in Afghanistan.
