Nine children among 16 dead after US serviceman attacks villagers

[Culpeper]

Afghans vow vengeance for soldier's killing spree

Distraught and furious Afghans vowed vengeance yesterday after a
US soldier apparently walked from a Nato base into the homes of
civilians, turning his weapon on the families inside and killing 16
people, nine of them children.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...e-7561637.html

One person can FUBAR an entire effort. This is a windfall for the Taliban. The Taliban can do this sort of thing. Our side cannot afford it. I'm waiting for the details on the soldier himself.

[jmm99]

Those two concepts seem to clash. In any event, the "Taliban" agit-prop went into gear right away - the area is scarcely pro-Karzai and leans "Taliban" based on what is being reported. And, Karzai's big mouth, as usual, adds fuel to the fire.

From a legal standpoint - viewing it as a UCMJ problem, there's nothing for me to say until we get an AR 15-6, or some functional equivalent - and even better, a forensic psychiatric on the alleged shooter.

I'll post at Rule of Law in Iraq & Afghanistan, at whatever page that's on, when some solid investigative information is released. In that thread, Bear and I have been talking about Son Thang (19 Feb 1970; also 16 homicides). What a mess !

Regards

Mike

[carl]

I am not so sure you can't do a rapid and thorough investigation. It depends upon the complexity of the case and how many people you can put on it. In this case I don't see things taking all that long. 1 man goes out and murders 16 people then walks home. The details of the crime itself won't be that hard to pin down.

From the standpoint of a defense lawyer and a prosecutor it may take longer to count as thorough because motivation comes into play (this is a guess Mike, please correct if needed). They may be looking forward to the trial, a long time in the future. But I think if an investigator is looking at why, just ask the guy today.

Sometimes I think Americans equate length of an investigation with thoroughness because in our country, there are so many games within games involved.

[82redleg]

If our justice system wasn't so warped, we'd be building a gallows in Kandahar right now, and this piece of human refuse would be swinging from it by the end of the week, with Al Jazeera in the front row, and live streaming the footage all over the world.

[Stan]

If our justice system wasn't so warped, we'd be building a gallows in Kandahar right now, and this piece of human refuse would be swinging from it by the end of the week, with Al Jazeera in the front row, and live streaming the footage all over the world.

Concur.
At this point the locals are really PO'd and rightfully so.
Let them hand the piece of Sierra !

[jmm99]

At this point, I'm not going to get into investigation techniques - good, botched or in between. Nor, am I going to spew some high-flown rhetoric about the legal rights, etc., of "S.Sgt. X from Fort Lewis" (if that is who he is). There will be plenty of time later to look at whatever judicial process comes into play.

Meanwhile, everybody who wants to build a gallows should say so - right here and now; and get it all out of your systems.

If I were Pres. Obama (which I'm not and I don't write the playbook), I'd get the man out of Astan to a secure location in the US - and take the short term flak.

Regards

Mike

[Steve Blair]

If our justice system wasn't so warped, we'd be building a gallows in Kandahar right now, and this piece of human refuse would be swinging from it by the end of the week, with Al Jazeera in the front row, and live streaming the footage all over the world.

Concur.
At this point the locals are really PO'd and rightfully so.
Let them hand the piece of Sierra !

And of course if we did that, the conspiracy folks would simply say that he was the scapegoat for a larger CIA/Government/UN conspiracy of some sort or another.

No good way out, that's for sure. As David points out, though, it's hard to project the long-term impact.

[carl]

If our justice system wasn't so warped, we'd be building a gallows in Kandahar right now, and this piece of human refuse would be swinging from it by the end of the week, with Al Jazeera in the front row, and live streaming the footage all over the world.

It is interesting to me that the thing did the crime and then walked back to its base and turned itself in. If it wasn't so sure that it would be subject to the American justice system perhaps it would have reconsidered its actions. Perhaps at least the possibility that crimes would be punished inside Afghanistan by the Afghans would have had a dissuasive effect.

(My comment assumes the killer isn't crazy to the point of hearing voices and hallucinating, nor that it didn't have a brain tumor or something that it had reported to authority.)

[ganulv]

the area is scarcely pro-Karzai

that there is an area which is pro-Karzai?