US soldier kills Afghan civilians in Kandahar

US soldier kills Afghan civilians in Kandahar

www.bbc.co.uk

A US soldier in Afghanistan is reported to have killed a number of Afghan civilians after walking off his base in the southern province of Kandahar.

The soldier - who surrendered to the US military authorities - is thought to have had a breakdown, reports the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul.

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So soon after US soldiers burned copies of the Koran a soldier goes on the rampage and kills at least 17 civilians. It will be interesting to see what happens to the soldier. Will he escape punishment like the American soldiers who carried out the Haditha massacre? Looks like a lot may be played on saying he had a "breakdown".

www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by torsion


We shouldn't be there anyway. What else can we expect from multiple deployments over the last 10 years. Who knows how many warzones this soldier has been in. I was only in Iraq but I knew many guys who had multiple tour in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that was in 06.

reply to post by torsion


Great, now all of Afghanistan is gonna be mad at us.
This guy went and killed innocents without authorization.
I hope he at least screamed, "put down the gun" first before he killed the innocents.

I wonder how many of these psychos will be going berserk once they head back home.
What goes around comes around.

I have always thought that people who kill other people have something wrong mentally. In some cases murder is committed for nefarious reasons, but I feel that a normal, mentally well-balanced and sound individual would never commit murder, especially of this degree.

That is not to say that it is not their fault, but I suppose in a way it is not. Of course, they should still be held accountable for their actions, but our societies and cultures are not advanced enough to understand and TREAT these illnesses, or imbalances, or whatever they are.

So vilifying these individuals is understandable, but on a scientific level we should be attempting to figure out "what"it is that is wrong with these people, as it may be treatable in the future, as we advance as humans. Saying that "he knew what he was doing" doesn't hold water with me, as I know that some will reply with this statement. He may have known what he was doing to a degree, but using logic alone, no one will be able to understand why he did what he did. Medically maybe, but not logically or emotionally, on a comparative level, if you get what I am saying.

Anyone could suffer an accident, or have something happens that alters their brain chemistry, be it stress or whatever, and this can cause acts that seem irrational to the rational mind, ie normal people. Again, I am not taking up for this person, and this is a terrible act he should be punished for, but what I am getting at is that I hope we can move toward gaining the knowledge necessary to understand people like this. That way we do not have to have our tax dollars paying for prisoners, and instead can actually REFORM criminals to be NORMAL, productive members of society, and also possibly identify potential candidates for future crimes by medical and scientific means.

Who knows.. Maybe he will get the same as the Afghan soldiers who murdered American military personnel over the idiotic over reaction to the Quran burning? Or maybe they will suffer the same fate as the Muslims who desecrated the Quran by writing in them?

The guy is in custody, which is more than we can say for the Afghan / Taliban murderers. He, like the people involved in Haditha, will face an article 32 and possible court martial based on the rule of law and not the whim of 9th century sharia jurisprudence.

Originally posted by Xcathdra

Who knows.. Maybe he will get the same as the Afghan soldiers who murdered American military personnel over the idiotic over reaction to the Quran burning? Or maybe they will suffer the same fate as the Muslims who desecrated the Quran by writing in them?

The guy is in custody, which is more than we can say for the Afghan / Taliban murders. He, along with the people involved in Haditha, will face an article 32 and possible court martial based on the rule of law and not the whim of 9th century sharia jurisprudence?

I grew up in a military family and believe in a strong military capability...but I think we have to get out of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Our soldiers are asked to walk among civilians with intent to try and better their way of life, whether you agree or disagree with the task, knowing that the people they share tea with for weeks could end up turning on them as soon as their back is turned. We will never change the society their...those people don't want our changes. The fact they would kill as many soldiers as they can get to over the accidental burning of the Qurans by others just shows the fanatical brutality of these people. That is how much they value non-Islam individuals. Kill every American you can find for some other idiots failure to think before burning a book...nice.

We need to get out....take everything back...don't leave all the equipment behind and tell Karzai...have fun with that. Let the Taliban do whatever they want inside the lines of Afghanistan and Pakiatan and just be clear, if we find out you are behind any attack on our interests outside of those lines...well, you will know about our presence when your neighbors see your car or house go up in flames.

I know that sounds bad..,but I am tired of our troops being in places where we have no chance of winning. It's bound to result in something like what happened this time. No excuse for the crimes this soldier committed and he should pay for his crime but this will just make it impossible now for our other troops. Every base and soldier in country are now open game.

We are at war. People die. People lose it.

People are, well, people.

Here's real neat idea!

Surrender. Have all the people who are trying to kill us, stop. Raise the white flag.
Quit.

Once you do that, we leave, have a parade, give a few speeches, and it's done.

It's because of imbeciles like this that the war effort and 11 years of work and thousands of lives lost are going to be wasted, there's only so much the Afghan population will take before they all condemn us.

If you want my honest opinion and this is from an outside perspective I'm British, now I'm not sure if he was a US marine or if he was from some other part of the US armed forces but from what I've seen in American the military promotes the "Join up to kill" motive, where as in the UK if a potential recruit turned up at the office and said he wanted to join the Army to kill people he would be shown the door and blacklisted.

I also believe it has something to do with the long 12 month deployments the pentagon has your soldiers doing, 12 months away from family and friends being shot at and risking IED contact everyday is not good for mental stability or lets face it morale, you have enough soldiers to rotate on smaller deployments but for some reason your government wants to stretch resources as far as they can.

There have been some strange things going on over there. We need to leave instead of making a bad situation worse.

Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.

www.guardian.co.uk...

Is it any wonder the Afghani's are fighting back?

Most of you will never know or understand the frustrations or pressures of operations in Afghanistan
Regardless of your views on the war OR YOUR OPINIONS OF SERVICE PEOPLE OR WHY YOU THINK PEOPLE JOIN UP
The ineffectiveness, incompetency, ineptitude and dare I say cowardice of officers and commanders is and has been a growing problem
The politics, restrictions, but ultimately failings in the command and leadership leads to these problems
You can see the insurgents- they threaten you everyday
You know he's Taliban - you know they are storing/making/planning IED's/ambushes/manpads ect ect
But somewhere up in the food chain someone's decided that we aren't gonna act on what we know
Then you see a group of girls off into school get shredded by such an IED - or your buddy's - or anyone
Inside you know it coulda been prevented
If not for our so called leaders
I'm certain we would have been out years ago if we had had stronger commanders
But militairy commanders are not that any more
They have become MANAGERS with basic soldiering skills
Gone are the romanticised days of a gentleman of honour
Now they just take the job to pay the bills and further their own career but not through being a good officer but through being a yes man
It is something I have experienced many MANY times ( afghanistan alone in 05,06,07,08,10,11) and I have become very bitter and twisted about it ( you wanna understand the 1% vs the 99 - look at the militairy ! )
A growing field is combat stress as a result of poor command
Not through the actual act of combat or related events
BUT THE MORONS WE HAVE TO WORK FOR

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
There have been some strange things going on over there. We need to leave instead of making a bad situation worse.

Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.

www.guardian.co.uk...

Is it any wonder the Afghani's are fighting back?

An incident almost 2 years old that has been resolved.... oooook

Originally posted by sk0rpi0n
I wonder how many of these psychos will be going berserk once they head back home.
What goes around comes around.

I don't understand your insertion of "what goes around comes around", as, if in the scenario where a GI returns and kills women and kids in the US, how is that their fault or how did they in anyway deserve it

What a terrible story. The Vets here may hate me for saying it but I'm going to anyway because I see it in my own family. These guys are friggen worn out. They're shot. However, they're too Alpha and too proud to say so and voluntarily remove themselves from it, among those who DO have the choice on simple commitment they have left.

Some of these guys have have 6 or 7 or 8 combat tours and this has made World War II look relatively quiet for pure math in days spent with some form of attack or contact with the enemy. I'm not surprised someone finally blew their fuses. I'm shocked it hasn't happened far more already. This war has to end. ALL OF IT. It's over a decade for goodness sakes...and some people are talking 2016 for troops in Afghan. What the heck?! Enough!!

Perpetual War is the path of tyrants and dictators. It isn't something democratic styles of government can support. It's just enough.... We're destroying these guys, 1 day at a time and our current leaders don't even give it a passing thought to look at their behavior.

why is afgahnistan invaded
oh yeah
so some people can get rich on the decimation of an innocent people by using STUPID people to do the dirty work.

Burning korans wasn't enough???

and there are people wondering why they might fight back against their oppressors???

unfreakingbelievable!!!

oh well, soon it will be YOUR TURN
and the world won't just not care
THEY WILL APPLAUD!!!

Definately going to be reprisals following this.

Nine children amongst the fifteen confirmed deaths and US ambassador has warned of a backlash.

Afghans are, understandably, going to be very angry.

www.bbc.co.uk...

nine children...
and you have people defending and justifying that so their country can get raped
sad
sad about the soldiers
sad about the adults technically murdered in the invasion


unforgivable and undefensible about the children

Originally posted by Danbones

unforgivable and undefensible about the children

I'll second that bud.