Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
Mostly for the sake of argument, one incident was partly self defense, one was a stupid mistake (part of a continuing pattern), but this last appears to be plain old criminal murder. It might be good to set a precedent that if you commit criminal murder, the locals handle you.

If a soldier did the same thing in Japan, walked off the base, murdered 16 Japanese, then walked back onto the base and turned himself in; who would handle the case? I don't know which is why I ask.

Do you know what the outcome of the investigation into the killing of those children by the helos last year was?
I agree with you that in reality the helo incident was NOT murder.

But most Afghans likely disagree with you on that. The point of the Foust link was that these murders and the accidental killing of the children earlier this year are not much different in the view of most Afghans. If the point of handing this guy over is to assuage Afghan rage, you might as well do the same with the helo pilots or the AF guys who burned the Qurans.

The precedent that would set means it will not happen.

We have a SOFA with Japan which governs what happens with U.S. military personnel charged with crimes against Japanese civilians. We don't have on with Afghanistan - more to the point, Japan has a functioning justice system, which Afghanistan does not.