America's Heart of Darkness

So now our mercenaries in Afghanistan are murdering civilians in order to take their fingers as trophies. Who would'a thunk it? Actually, it's been thunk: Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness (1902) explored the corruption of western values in the process of subjugating African tribes. And in case anybody missed the message — confusedly thinking that perhaps the horror stems from the tribes themselves — we have a reprise in Francis Ford Coppola's film Apocalypse Now (1979), with Marlon Brando playing the white warrior gone insane. Ancient history, perhaps, to the current generation ...yet it's so predictable: American colonial barbarism must necessarily be the same as any other.