What is going on with our military in Afghanistan? To begin with Marines video themselves urinating on dead Afghans. Link 1

Then a picture of a group of Marine snipers posing in front of an American flag and a banner with the emblem of the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) surfaced. Link 2

Following that, American troops "accidentally" burned copies of the Qur'an at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul. Link 3

Finally (for now) on Sunday a U.S. Army sergeant went house to house in three villages in Panjwai district, a rural region outside Kandahar shooting people who were sleeping there killing sixteen, mostly women and children. Link 4

Are they too ignorant to realize that such actions will only incite more violence against Americans and NATO who are in that country? Don't they realize that such things will only increase the support for the Taliban? The only policy that makes sense at this point is to get out of Afghanistan not in 2014 or 2013, but now.

Mar 12, 2012 -- 2:20PM, Tpaine wrote:

What is going on with our military in Afghanistan?

Who knows? He with the biggest guns gets to make the rules

Mar 12, 2012 -- 2:20PM, Tpaine wrote:

To begin with Marines video themselves urinating on dead Afghans. Link 1

Then a picture of a group of Marine snipers posing in front of an American flag and a banner with the emblem of the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) surfaced. Link 2

Following that, American troops "accidentally" burned copies of the Qur'an at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul. Link 3

Finally (for now) on Sunday a U.S. Army sergeant went house to house in three villages in Panjwai district, a rural region outside Kandahar shooting people who were sleeping there killing sixteen, mostly women and children. Link 4

Are they too ignorant to realize that such actions will only incite more violence against Americans and NATO who are in that country? Don't they realize that such things will only increase the support for the Taliban?

Who knows? He with the biggest guns gets to make the rules.  What can the Afghans do except protest.  What can Karzid do but condemn it (again)?

Mar 12, 2012 -- 2:20PM, Tpaine wrote:

The only policy that makes sense at this point is to get out of Afghanistan not in 2014 or 2013, but now.

Take heart.  Most of those who supported retaliating against an entire population of civilians for the bad acts of a few from other countries, and all the Republican candidates now support cutting and running

The irony here is exquisite.

***

On edit: The guy who committed this atrocity hails from the same Washington-state military base that bears the distinction of service members murdering Afghans "for sport" and taking "trophies" from themselves.

Part of The "Problem" in Afghanistan is that it has turned out to be a Tour-of-Duty SHOCKING similar to Viet Nam, i.e., there is  NO  WAY  to distinguish with certainty The Enemies from The Friendlies ... It is a Situation nearly GUARANTEED to make (some) Soldiers Paranoid and ANGRY ...

Mar 12, 2012 -- 4:15PM, Tpaine wrote:

Mar 12, 2012 -- 2:41PM, teilhard wrote:

"Our Military" didn't commit those Atrocities ... A few -- VERY few -- Individual Soldiers did them ...

(Hint: Otherwise, are you then ALSO going to ask, "What is Wrong wih Muslims ... ???," since SOME "Muslims" have committed TERRIBLE Terrorist Attacks during the last 10+ Years ... ???)

Be CAREFUL not to use a BROAD Brush, lest  EVERYBODY  EVERYWHERE  be "painted"

I agree it's not the entire military, but is limited to possibly a couple of dozen individuals. But it also seems that there is a breakdown in command and control somewhere along the line since these incidents are happening with more frequency. Maybe it's a failure to identify those people who are suffering from PTSD from far to many deployments to either Iraq, Afghanistan, or both. We went into Afghanistan in 2001 to eliminate Al Qaeda, but we let bin Laden get away in December 2001 at Tora Bora, and the Bush Administration seemed to lose interest in Afghanistan and concentrated on starting a totally unnecessary war in Iraq.

Mar 12, 2012 -- 4:53PM, rabello wrote:

Mar 12, 2012 -- 4:18PM, teilhard wrote:

Part of The "Problem" in Afghanistan is that it has turned out to be a Tour-of-Duty SHOCKING similar to Viet Nam, i.e., there is  NO  WAY  to distinguish with certainty The Enemies from The Friendlies ... It is a Situation nearly GUARANTEED to make (some) Soldiers Paranoid and ANGRY ...

I don't see how that explains killing women and children in the middle of the night after a home invasion and burning some of the bodies, unless it's "spin".

But it is true, Americans learned nothing from the Vietnam Tragedy we caused.

We participated in Vietnam but we didn't cause the war. That went way back to French colonialism. Remember the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu ??? It is well to study history...............

Mar 12, 2012 -- 4:18PM, teilhard wrote:

Part of The "Problem" in Afghanistan is that it has turned out to be a Tour-of-Duty SHOCKING similar to Viet Nam, i.e., there is  NO  WAY  to distinguish with certainty The Enemies from The Friendlies ... It is a Situation nearly GUARANTEED to make (some) Soldiers Paranoid and ANGRY ...

I agree. Santayana was right.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.." -- George Santayana: The Life of Reason (1905)

Some politicians seem to be unable to remember the past. Nation building by an occupying power doesn't work. It didn't work in Vietnam and it isn't working in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Someone forgot the purpose for going into Afghanistan was to get bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders. We lost that opportunity soon after we got there, but some idiot decided we should stay there and turn a primitive country into a modern democracy. Now I hear regressives proposing we try the same failed concept in Iran. As of 2/1/2012 there have been 1,785 Americans killed and 15,310 wounded. It's time to leave.