U.S. Soldiers Open Fire On Civilians In Afghanistan

[rjdaae]

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, March 11 (Reuters) - Western forces shot dead 16 civilians including nine children in southern Kandahar province on Sunday, Afghan officials said, in a rampage that witnesses said was carried out by American soldiers who were laughing and appeared drunk.

One Afghan father who said his children were killed in the shooting spree

Comments

[theguindo]

Remember my brother who's going into the army? He told me yesterday that "everyone plays by the rules (in the military)"

This is a really common mindset, the belief that people with authority will never abuse it. Most people in the military do play by the rules, and they don't want to believe that their comrades would ever do anything so hideously wrong.

Another big problem is the fact that, even though you are allowed to and even EXPECTED TO question and not follow unlawful orders, people still follow them. The military does not train you how to question and think, so when you're given an unlawful order, the chances of you stopping to realize it's unlawful can be pretty slim.

This story makes me so angry. The sad part is I have no trouble believing a group of dipshits went and did something so heinous while enjoying themselves the whole time. They didn't even stop for one second to think about how this would affect people, not just "the enemy", but the people in their own unit and throughout the rest of the military who would have to deal with the inevitable retaliation.

[emofordino]

MTE. we all saw what happened as a result of burning those copies of the koran, how could those soldiers not think, "hm, i wonder if there will be any consequences to shooting down innocent women and children while drunk, like the taliban retaliating against my fellow soldiers/marines/etc or even possibly my own country where my family lives?" how could a person be so fucking thoughtless? this whole situation is so fucking disgusting.

[romp]

I too thought of the Koran burning, something I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around. Has that story been verified? Because how could anyone sign off on that? Or if it was an accident, who TALKED about it if the burning had already started and couldn't be prevented?! To tell someone, you'd have to know people were going to be outraged...

[romp]

Thanks for those details. I think I just wish that, however it happened, word didn't get out. Surely they knew it would result in anger/rioting...