Afghanistan

Wobbie

time to go. now.

Idris

.

gimmesometruth27

hearts and minds boys and girls, hearts and minds....


US soldier kills 16 Afghan civilians, officials say

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20 ... icials-say

Updated at 10:55 a.m. ET: KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A U.S. service member killed at least 15 members of two Afghan families as well as a 16th person before turning himself in, witnesses and officials said Sunday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a statement called it "an assassination," adding that nine of the dead were children, and three were women.

The soldier, who has yet to be identified, reportedly left his base in the early hours Sunday and went to two villages just a few hundred yards away. He then opened fire on Afghan civilians sleeping in their homes, Minister of Border and Tribal Affairs Asadullah Khalid told Reuters. The service member entered three homes in the villages in Kandahar province, he said.

Twelve of the dead were from Balandi, said Samad Khan, adding that 11 were from his family, including women and children. Khan was away from the village when the incident occurred. One of his neighbors was also killed, he said.

"This is an anti-human and anti-Islamic act," said Khan. "Nobody is allowed in any religion in the world to kill children and women."

Khan demanded that Karzai punish the American shooter. "Otherwise we will make a decision," said Khan. "He should be handed over to us."

Four people reportedly killed in the neighboring village were also from a single family, said a female relative who was shouting in anger. She did not give her name because of the conservative nature of local society.

"No Taliban were here. No gun battle was going on," said the woman. "We don't know why this foreign soldier came and killed our innocent family members. Either he was drunk or he was enjoying killing civilians."

Five were wounded in the incident, said Khalid, who is investigating the incident.

The BBC reported that the soldier was thought to have suffered a breakdown.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan's defense ministry told Reuters that "coalition forces" killed civilians in the shooting spree. NATO did not immediately comment on the report, which implied that there had been more than one attacker.

American and NATO officials apologized for Sunday's shootings.

The American Embassy in Kabul said in a statement that it was "saddened by this violent act against our Afghan friends."

"The United States extends its deepest condolences to the families of the victims of today’s tragic shooting incident," the statement said. "We assure the people of Afghanistan that the individual or individuals responsible for this act will be identified and brought to justice."

NATO, meanwhile, called the attack "appalling" and said it was in no way part of its authorized activities.

"An investigation is already underway and every effort will be made to establish the facts and hold anyone responsible to account," Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw, deputy commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, said in a statement.

Civilian casualties have been a major source of friction between Karzai's government and U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan.

"U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, in cooperation with Afghan authorities, will investigate this incident," NATO said.

Anti-American sentiment is running high in Afghanistan and it may deepen if news of the shooting spreads.

Anger gripped the country after U.S. soldiers burned a large number of copies of the Koran at a NATO base last month. NATO said it was a tragic blunder.

Thirty people were killed in protests and Afghan forces turned their weapons on U.S. soldiers, killing six.



so honestly, when is this bullshit and these empty toothless apologies and promises for prosecution going to stop? senseless murder has been tolerated for too long....anyone want to bet this motherfucker gets off just like the haditha massacre soldiers did?? we use these same empty apologies every time this happens and nothing ever comes from it except more civillian massacres..

we need to get out of there NOW...

gimmesometruth27

sorry idris, you posted your article while i was composing mine :oops:

Dirtie_Frank

I agree time to leave for multiple reasons. This story does not make much sense to me for a few reasons. One is that one soldier is not authorized to leave the base there are measures in place to stop this from happening. There has to be more to this.

peacefrompaul

If the Russian's failed we can surely succeed! :roll:

We've had over a decade to "win" in Afghanistan, it's NOT going to happen.

BinauralJam

But there's a lot of herion and cellphone raw materials there, not to mention the Pakistan border and Iran's border, it's just so damn special. oh ya and the spread of democracy and stuff.

peacefrompaul

BinauralJam wrote:

But there's a lot of herion and cellphone raw materials there, not to mention the Pakistan border and Iran's border, it's just so damn special. oh ya and the spread of democracy and stuff.

Yeah and this too. Fucking ridiculous...

Wobbie

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

hearts and minds boys and girls, hearts and minds....

yep....it's never gonna happen. they never wanted us there. time to go.

Cliffy6745

Fucking sickening. This shit got to me.

g under p

Well as sad as this is we ALL know this has happened many times before both there in Afghanistan and in Iraq. It just happens this tradgedy was reported. Like Michael Franti would say....it's Time To Go Home.

Peace

brianlux

I wonder is another reason we're there is to lay claim to rare earth elements found there.

http://www.livescience.com/16315-rare-e ... istan.html

(Notice I said lay claim to. We in the west seem to think we own the planet.)

peacefrompaul

brianlux wrote:

I wonder is another reason we're there is to lay claim to rare earth elements found there.

http://www.livescience.com/16315-rare-e ... istan.html

(Notice I said lay claim to. We in the west seem to think we own the planet.)

Interesting

Sad but true, a terrible way to think.

Cosmo

Remember all that talk about 'Cut And Run', 'Cut and Run' and 'Cut And Run'?
It's now the time to Cut our losses and Run like Hell outta that place. Has been for about 7 years, now. Afghanistan went from a 'Just Cause' in 2002 to a 'Lost Cause' the day we stepped into Iraq.
...
"Support Our Troops!!!" ... bring them home to their families.

brianlux

Cosmo wrote:

Remember all that talk about 'Cut And Run', 'Cut and Run' and 'Cut And Run'?
It's now the time to Cut our losses and Run like Hell outta that place. Has been for about 7 years, now. Afghanistan went from a 'Just Cause' in 2002 to a 'Lost Cause' the day we stepped into Iraq.
...
"Support Our Troops!!!" ... bring them home to their families.

I totally agree. :thumbup:

Maybe someone thinks they can profit from those rare earth elements I mentioned but I'm guessing that would be a lot like trying to walk through a mine field without a bomb or metal detector. You might get lucky.

Better to do what you suggested, "Cut our losses and Run like Hell outta that place".

catefrances

Dirtie_Frank wrote:

I agree time to leave for multiple reasons. This story does not make much sense to me for a few reasons. One is that one soldier is not authorized to leave the base there are measures in place to stop this from happening. There has to be more to this.

of course it makes sense.. a person, not quite of sound mind at the time has access to weapons. for whatever reason he feels the need to expel some demons. after mutliple tours of iraq this man shouldve been home, not in another war zone. and clearly this one soldier did make it off the base regardless of measures in place. im not seeing any conspiracy here... just a tragic event.

Cosmo

catefrances wrote:

of course it makes sense.. a person, not quite of sound mind at the time has access to weapons. for whatever reason he feels the need to expel some demons. after mutliple tours of iraq this man shouldve been home, not in another war zone.

...
He needs to be tried in Afghani Courts, not American or U.S. Military Courts. He murdered Afghani civilians... including women and children.
...
I feel this way because if something like that were to happen here... a foriegn person going nuts and killing American citizens on American soil... I would want our courts to dispense justice... not theirs.

gimmesometruth27

Soldier accused in Afghan massacre could get death penalty

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/ ... th-penalty

The American soldier who is accused in a massacre of 16 villagers near Kandahar could face the death penalty, a military defense attorney said Monday, in one of the worst cases of alleged mass murder by a U.S. service member since the Vietnam War.

U.S. officials have said the soldier acted alone, leaving his base in southern Afghanistan and opening fire on sleeping families. After the massacre, he went back to his base and turned himself in, officials said.

The military will not identify the soldier until charges are filed, Pentagon spokesman William Speaks told msnbc.com Monday. The suspect remains in Afghanistan while the attack is being investigated.

---

According to military officials, the soldier will be tried within the military justice system, not turned over to Afghan authorities for trial, rebuffing a call from Afghan lawmakers to use their courts.

The suspect is based out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. He has been identified as a staff sergeant in the Stryker brigade who was taking part in a village stability operation in Afghanistan. He is a 38-year-old married father of two on his first deployment to Afghanistan after three previous deployments in Iraq.

"Based on what we’re hearing I suspect this will be prosecuted as a death penalty case," Philip Cave, a Washington-based military defense attorney told msnbc.com. "You’ve got felony murder, and certainly the number of victims and the circumstances -– very young children as victims –- I think there will be sufficient grounds to move forward as a death penalty case."

Before charges are filed, the soldier will likely undergo heavy psychological testing as part of the investigation, Cave said. Then an Article 32 investigation -- a thorough examination of the case with testimony from witnesses -- will be conducted before any court-martial proceedings. If there is a conviction at court-martial with the death penalty imposed and all appeals exhausted, the president of the United States himself would have to sign the death warrant for the soldier's execution.

Retired Army platoon Sgt. Jonn Lilyea, a Desert Storm veteran who writes the blog "This Ain’t Hell," told msnbc.com he expects the military to make an example out of the shooter as the case moves through the justice system.

Still, Lilyea cautioned that people should not rush to blame the killings on the soldier’s deployments during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I’d wait to see if he really was in a position that would have affected him in this way," Lilyea said. "But I’m more concerned people will try to use this like they did after Vietnam with the My Lai massacre and taint all combat veterans of this generation as if they were like this one guy." Millions of Americans have served in combat, seen and done "terrible things," but have gone on to normal productive lives after their service, Lilyea pointed out.

Lt. William Calley was convicted of killing 22 villagers in My Lai village in 1968 in an incident that heightened U.S. opposition to the Vietnam War.

If the number of people slain in the attack is confirmed at 16, and the soldier is convicted, the mass killings would be the most of any convicted killer on the military’s death row, which currently has six inmates.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. He also faces a possible death penalty. His trial was scheduled to begin this month but was delayed until June to allow his defense more time to prepare.

John Bennett was the last U.S. soldier to be executed by the military. He was hanged in 1961 after being convicted of the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old Austrian girl.

Lethal injection is the current method of execution under military justice, according to military defense lawyer Cave.

catefrances

Cosmo wrote:

catefrances wrote:

of course it makes sense.. a person, not quite of sound mind at the time has access to weapons. for whatever reason he feels the need to expel some demons. after mutliple tours of iraq this man shouldve been home, not in another war zone.

...
He needs to be tried in Afghani Courts, not American or U.S. Military Courts. He murdered Afghani civilians... including women and children.
...
I feel this way because if something like that were to happen here... a foriegn person going nuts and killing American citizens on American soil... I would want our courts to dispense justice... not theirs.

and if that afghani crazy man was part of an invading army?? you know this is a bit different cause the gunmen was a soldier... a soldier not off the clock just gone crazy, but a soldier as part of an invading force. i know it shouldnt make a difference but it does. and yes i agree he needs to be tried in afghani court.. but no death penalty.

brianlux

Another story on the Afghanistan massacre. Very sad.

http://www.progressive.org/end_the_occu ... istan.html

The Massacre Underscores the Message: End the Occupation of Afghanistan

By Matthew Rothschild, March 12, 2012

It is time, it is way, way past time, for the U.S. military to leave Afghanistan.

The grotesque massacre on Sunday by a U.S. soldier only underscores the point.

And the massacre was almost inevitable. When you have 100,000 soldiers under stress in a foreign country where they’re not wanted, when you have soldiers on their fourth tour of duty as this one was (who reportedly spent three tours in Iraq), at some point, someone’s going to break.

And what a horrific break it was.

Hunting down villagers door to door, killing 16 people, nine of them children and burning some of their bodies—it doesn’t get worse than this.

But the massacre is just the latest in a long and bloody string of deaths that have U.S. fingerprints on them. Just two days before, NATO helicopters killed four civilians and wounded three. And other wayward bombing raids and drones have taken an awful toll in Afghanistan, as well.

The Afghan people have had more than enough. Since the U.S. invaded ten and a half years ago, U.S. forces have been responsible for the deaths of between 9,000 and 29,000 Afghan civilians.

This latest massacre, on top of all the other deaths inflicted upon the people of Afghanistan, plays into the hands of the Taliban, which prides itself on fighting the occupiers.

We must end the occupation, end the bidding for a permanent military presence there, and let the Afghan people decide their own fate.

catefrances

not only have the afghan people had enough.. it is clear the soldiers have had more than enough too.