Rogue Soldier kills Afghan civilians
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17330205


First thoughts?

Bugger.

Second thoughts?

My Lai Mk II

This will not do much for tensions in Afghanistan after the Qu'ran burning incident. :damn:

Mine: a perfectly good head on his shoulders and he didn't manage to hit it. Provided that this goes like the press so far has covered it.

This incident has been a double tragedy. Obviously, the deaths of innocents, but also the mental breakdown of a soldier. I wouldn't call it a "My Lai" as it was a lone wolf crazy following his own deranged orders, but it may not matter.

After the urinating incident, and the Koran burning incident we are in position where profuse (and desperate sounding) apologies from afar don't cut it anymore...if they ever did. :nope:

Oh boy, here we'll go again....:damn:

Don't hands out weapons to mentally unstable people.:damn::damn:

:nope:

Everybody has his breaking point. EVERYBODY. For some it is more upwards on the scale, for others it is somewhere lower. Expose any man long enough to war, and he finds his sooner or later.

This guy just found his.

Turn him over to the Afghan legal system.

Normally, I'd say let the military courts handle this. But no this time. This needs to be handled by the locals for multiple reasons. Their closure and international relations just to name a couple.

They simply can't do it. Recruiting would likely plummet like a rock if we started the precedent of handing our wayward soldiers over to local justice, no matter the crime.

Possibly true, we should try it and see.

I'm beginning to think relations are so low they'll never recover now.

There is no clear info at this time. Was this a monkey trying to have "fun", a retarded bastard? Then hand him over to the locals. But early reports said he had a nervous breakdown, and his psyche was/is instabile. It is a reasonable guess to assume that this may be the results form mhaving seen too much, havingm lived in war conditions, stress, and having fear for too long. In this case, do not hand him over, but practice the military'S laws on him.

The negative consequences in Afghanistan should not be pointed out that much. Relations are already that bad, in cannot get any worse, I would say.

Sad but probably true. It's a no win situation and hard to imagine any good outcome. To bad.

I was agreeing with Neal's comment until I read Skybird's comment. What is the correct course of action in a case like this? I have no idea.

Then I read u-crank's comment, and I'm reminded of Walt Kelly's Pogo, and his twist on a famous military statement: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Best thing get out fast.

I should imagine President Karzai has already got his escape route/package worked out.

In hind site, maybe we sould just give Afghanistan back to the Russians. Let them run that place.:dead:

Maybe it's time we just go.
The whole thing is just tragic. No winners.

The precedent has already been set. Not in Afghanistan or Iraq (yet) but we have allowed our troops to be prosecuted by local authority in the past. It all depends on the Status of Forces agreement, if any, we have with the host country.

No doubt this is a bad situation all around, for EVERONE. Something might have snapped in his head. Hopefully he will be treated fairly and not made an example of if he indeed has physiological problems. Did any of a you arm chair judges consider this soldier might have suffered PTSD or another mental disorder, seething anger with no intervention. As well as seeing horrendous things done to his buddies by the very people they are there to protect. This isn't a video game you know.

Our system of "impartial and blind" justice is not perfect, but it is what separates us from an angry mob looking for vengeance. Should we hand him over? NO. Because WE THE PEOPLE sent that soldier over to that god forsaken hellhole when we jumped on the freedom and democracy bandwagon. So WE THE PEOPLE need to act like we talk, and see justice served. Not throw him over the walls and let the dogs tear him apart.