Afghanistan

[Kythas]

Just heard about the US service member who killed 16 civilians this morning. If anyone reading this is currently deployed to Afghanistan, be careful. Things will probably get very ugly.

Stay alert, stay alive.

[Teamless]

I certainly understand your wanting our men and women to be careful and I certainly second that!

But my issue is with the civilians... how do our service men and women know who the bad guys are, or more so, as we are not fighting a regular army, arent all civilians potentially the enemy?
I wish our military leaders (especially their Commander in Blunder Obama would let our people actually fight the war, and not put so many restrictions on our people

[speedsix]

...this sounds like a human being who had finally had enough...sorry the conditions exist and that he will be called to pay the price...prayers for all our boys/girls to come home safely and soon...very soon...this won't be settled by one man's punishment...

[JP171]

That this happened is bad, yes it will raise the tension level to a frenzy point. The comments that this behavior may somehow be acceptable are misguided. No I am not hammering on your understanding because your understanding is incomplete and no I can't really educate you on the subjet too much here. You are going to have to take my word on some of this, the indiginous peoples can always be unlawful combatants and beligerants. Even with this applicability there are rules and laws that govern the conduct of war and the individual during war, it seems that the soldier had no clear indication that these sleeping people were beligerants or combatants therefore his actions were and are illegal according to the laws of war, the hague and geneva conventions. The soldier needs to be sent home, he will be tried under general courts martial and he will be found guilty, this is as it should be. I do think that instead of confinement at Ft. Leavenworth he should be remanded to a psych facility, the under lying problem should be addressed so that he is no longer a threat to soceity or himself, he is both of those at the moment. Yes I have been there done that and do understand the motivation, but I do not condone the acts.

[Heartland Patriot]

My question is this: how did this guy get outside the wire without anyone noticing him leaving? He obviously took his rifle/carbine...but he left BY HIMSELF? He had to have gone through some sort of guarded checkpoint. I would imagine that the "buddy-system" AT MINIMUM would be required to go outside the wire in a hostile area...they didn't like anyone where I was, in a non-war-zone Middle Eastern nation, going "downtown" by ourselves...SOMETHING just isn't adding up here...call me paranoid, call me suspicious, whatever...I don't like this whole darned deal...I didn't like the whole darn deal with the burning of the religious stuff...I think the whole darned think stinks to the highest reaches...and just gives the powers-that-be more of an excuse AND credit with the public-at-large for pulling our forces out in a hurry...


EDITED TO EMPHASIZE THE IMPORTANT POINT!

[philip964]

I suspect this will not receive the protests that burning the Koran did. Osama is dead, probably time to go.

[The Annoyed Man]

I am asking out of pure curiosity, and not because I think that this is necessarily what is called for.....but does the UCMJ consider murder to ever be a capital crime, and does it specify the death penalty for some kinds of murder cases, the same way that the civilian criminal justice system does?

[¿Qué?]

I certainly understand your wanting our men and women to be careful and I certainly second that!

But my issue is with the civilians... how do our service men and women know who the bad guys are, or more so, as we are not fighting a regular army, arent all civilians potentially the enemy?
I wish our military leaders (especially their Commander in Blunder Obama would let our people actually fight the war, and not put so many restrictions on our people

I wish he would bring them home. The country is broke. It's time to stop spending trillions playing Team America World Police.

[AEA]

or a Nation Rebuilding Role either!

[bayouhazard]

Amen. Bring home the shooters and send the 99%ers over there in the Peace Corps.

[Lambda Force]

The local government can pay for their own mercenaries. Oops, I mean "military contractors" in newspeak.

[MadMonkey]

Heard about it a little earlier myself. I'm expecting security so go up again like it did after the Q'uran burning... great.

[donkey]

I am asking out of pure curiosity, and not because I think that this is necessarily what is called for.....but does the UCMJ consider murder to ever be a capital crime, and does it specify the death penalty for some kinds of murder cases, the same way that the civilian criminal justice system does?

He could be charged with violating article 118 (murder) of the UCMJ. If it is determined that the act was premeditated then he could be sentenced to death.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/918

My question is this: how did this guy get outside the wire without anyone noticing him leaving? He obviously took his rifle/carbine...but he left BY HIMSELF? He had to have gone through some sort of guarded checkpoint. I would imagine that the "buddy-system" AT MINIMUM would be required to go outside the wire in a hostile area...they didn't like anyone where I was, in a non-war-zone Middle Eastern nation, going "downtown" by ourselves...SOMETHING just isn't adding up here...call me paranoid, call me suspicious, whatever...I don't like this whole darned deal...I didn't like the whole darn deal with the burning of the religious stuff...I think the whole darned think stinks to the highest reaches...and just gives the powers-that-be more of an excuse AND credit with the public-at-large for pulling our forces out in a hurry...


EDITED TO EMPHASIZE THE IMPORTANT POINT!

It sounds like he was at a smaller FOB or COP. Things work a little bit differently there than at the major US bases. It's also possible that he was at a location where the Afghans were working security. They aren't going to care if a US soldier wants to walk out the front gate.

[Heartland Patriot]

I'm still not buying it, not in the least. This administration needs an excuse to pull our troops out IN A HURRY, instead of in the appropriate manner...I'm sure they would probably prefer it to happen before the election so they can make a claim of how great they are, don't forget to vote for them and all that...first we have the whole Koran thing and now this? Too blasted convenient for me, too blasted convenient by far. I put NOTHING past them to earn political capital, nothing. I'm telling you I smell a rat...if anyone thinks I'm off my rocker about this, I'm far too irritated to care...