Joshua Foust makes an excellent point. This is probably not a game-changer from an Afghan perspective, since most Afghans make little distinction between a deliberate American massacre and a slaughter by error at this point in the war. Sure, the Taliban will try and make hay, but they do anytime Afghan civilians die at NATO hands, which happens often enough to not make the news anymore.
Where it may be a game changer, the way My Lai was, is in the American domestic sphere. The urge to cut and run seems to be only accelerating at this point.
Should we turn him over to the Afghans? Should we have left Ray Davis and his incompetent QRF to the Pakistanis? The pilots who killed nine Afghan children last year? The precedent set would be disastrous.
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