Details are still emerging on the killings of 16 Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier in Kandahar province. U.S. officials call it an isolated incident in which one rogue soldier acted alone. Obviously if the initial reports are true, this is a horrifying event that will shake how Americans and the world at large view U.S. commitment to that war effort. As appalling as this incident may be and as gruesome as the details to come may prove, however, any decision on this war must be made strictly on national security grounds.
Heritage Foundation Senior Research Fellow Lisa Curtis warns that:
Not only will this horrific incident enrage average Afghans, it will likely significantly impact the American public attitude toward the war and renew calls for speeding up the pace of U.S. troop withdrawals. It is important for the U.S. to demonstrate that it will ensure justice is served in dealing with the perpetrator of the senseless murders. As tempting as it may be to view the current troubles in Afghanistan as an excuse to cut and run, U.S. leaders must recognize that would be irresponsible and lead to greater dangers for the U.S. and the Afghans. Instead, the U.S. and Afghan authorities must work together to calm the situation and show unity of purpose.
The shootings occurred in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, a former Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan that had made considerable progress on the security front after the surge of U.S. troops.
The heightened tensions over the shooting, following recent outbreaks of violence after the improper disposal of Korans, threatens to unravel the hard-won security gains made in southern Afghanistan and could greatly complicate the Obama Administration’s strategy for Afghanistan. Taliban leaders vowed to take revenge for the attacks.
THIS is outrageously horrible on it's face!!! WE'RE NOT SUPPOSE TO BE THERE! if the president wasn't so busy collecting millions of dollars from men who hate women and the same men who fear the courage, strength and intellect of women to the point men use childish, vulgar, insulting, disgusting name calling where no truth exist but to exploit their less than manhood to insist government dependency for women so these little men are protected from women and the president wasn't so protective about the personal feelings of a woman who was called a word she describes herself as, this wouldn't have happened.
God Bless the good people of Afghanistan! May we all come to know the truth!
The last sentence says it all. We can't win hearts and minds, when their hearts and minds refuse to give up their misognynistic view of all those non-Muslim. Time to cut bait and bring our troops home. Let them all live in the 12th century, if that makes them happy. And if they are ignorant enough to strike us again, hopefully we will have a strong POTUS who will hit back with everything we have. Those people only understand and respect force, unfortunately.
What is outragious is that this decorated soldier was allowed to go back to active duty after suffering severe head trauma on a previous deployment, the blame rest on the U.S.Army medics who released this soldier as fit.
Definitely a sad event, to say the least. Senseless killing of men, women, or children during war is obviously a bad thing. If this soldier has violated the UCMJ, then he should be prosecuted and dealt with accordingly. What is also horrific, but not being dealt with properly, are the murders of the soldiers over the book burning incident. Afghans will cheer at the punishment of this soldier, if he indeed did something wrong, but will not submit their own murderers to be punished. Afghanistan is not our ally. Muslims are not friendly toward the U.S.A.. Instead of hiding behind "religious tolerance", the American government needs to honestly understand the objectives of Islam and protect our country against the desires of those who hate us.
In my view a lesson taught and learned. We have a soldier who did a preemptive strike after watching our testostrone challenged goverment do nothing as well as that of the host country. Use Terror to fight terror and all holds be damned this is a war and things happen that are not pleasent.
The soldier in question should not have been there to begin with. But we have drawn down to much of those willing to serve. That they have to pull so much because of all the slackers here in the USA. Yes I put in my 15 years of service. Read the book “Devils Brigade”. That is another way to fight that we find unacceptable but we would WIN.
Why haven't they released the name of this soldier. What are they hiding?
WHY?? Because he has a family, why not release the name of the medics who said he was OK to return to duty, If you can't see what really happen go to your nearest inlistment center and vol. to serve. These men see horrible things, suffer from Shell shock and have nightmars for years, true his injuries were from non-combat BUTthey were in Iraq and he did suffer evere head trauma, so agian WHY WAS HE RELEASED for active duty .