So far, no condemnation or concern about international law has been heard from the White House.

It’s a sad commentary on our media that the President had to answer questions yesterday about drones for the first time, and the questions didn’t come at a White House press briefing or major print interview, but in a virtual YouTube town hall with members of the public. FDL’s Kevin Gosztola covered this at The Dissenter last night, but there’s more to say about the disconnect between the concerns of the media and the concerns of ordinary Americans in that.

Memorial Day is often a time to reflect on the soldiers who die in war. Why not also the civilians? Why not these five girls, seven boys and two women killed in their sleep from an object dropped on them at 10,000 feet, without warning? Don’t they deserve a memorial? Don’t their families and countrymen deserve to be free of a life in fear that they could be the next target of a poorly aimed bomb from the sky?

It took a whistleblower to bring down the kill team, but senior Army leadership knew from battlefield reports and complaints from the local population about their exploits. It took a long time for them to act. So while there’s some solace in the fact that these soldiers are being held accountable for their crimes and that the process began well before the articles were released, it’s not like the punishment was swift. And the unit commander continues to operate freely, despite what was occurring in his ranks. Only the lower-level troops have been arrested. In fact, the article intimates that the squad leader, Calvin Gibbs, who was generally the ringleader for a lot of this conduct, learned the behavior while working in the security detail for a top colonel named Harry Tunnell, who pushed his troops to relentlessly attack the enemy.

As we watch the NATO actions in Libya and listen to the discussions about “the responsibility to protect,” it does make you wonder who is looking out for the civilians of Afghanistan.

Jeremy Morlock, part of the Army Stryker “kill team” in Afghanistan, plead guilty today to killing three Afghan civilians in an Army court-martial case. Photos of Morlock and his colleagues posing with Afghan corpses were published in the German magazine Der Spiegel this week, stirring controversy about abuse, torture and defilement carried out by enlisted men and women during the occupation.

For me, there’s another reason why I joined – and why I’m asking you to join up tonight if you haven’t already. Firedoglake with Jane at the lead has always seen the very real human beings in the midst of the news. There are many places where you can read foreign policy punditry or analysis or ideology, but oh so few where the human voices caught in the midst of our chaotic and transforming world can speak and have their voices heard. And creating a space where we listen to those voices is one of the things I value most about FDL and the space Jane has offered me – and all of you here. When we report on Iraq, Afghanistan or Gaza, and now Egypt and Libya and Bahrain, we look for the local sources, the local voices and viewpoints and do our best to showcase them.Too frequently our progressive platforms focus inward, to domestic issues and domestic squabbles – too rarely do we look at what America policy and militarism means for the people it’s imposed upon. And too many blogs have been afraid to take on some of these impacts – whether it’s the horror of civilian casualties in Sadr City or the US money and arms behind Operation Cast Lead.

The Pentagon wants you to ignore some inconvenient facts about the failure of the escalation strategy in Afghanistan.

The latest Petraeus/Gates media tour is under way in preparation for the general’s testimony to Congress next week, and they’re trotting out the same, tired spin they’ve been using since McChrystal was replaced in disgrace last year.

Over the weekend, Afghan President Hamid Karzai informed General David Petraeus that US apologies for civilian deaths in Afghanistan are no longer sufficient. In response, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Monday.

Iraq enters 2011 – the year in which American forces are supposed to finally leave – with all too many wounds from our occupation. While we hear little here in the US about the effects of our war and occupation, Iraqis live with the results daily.