KANDAHAR KILLING

So far no explanation has been given for  why a US Army Sergeant would attack and kill civilians in Kandahar, Afghanistan. We can expect to be told that he was insane. People usually show symptoms of insanity before the breaking point.

According to Nick O’Malley in The Sydney Morning Herald, Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta, has reassured the Afghan President that person involved will be brought to justice, and given previous experience that will be very assuring. Prime Minister Gillard makes the same comments she does every time soldiers are killed that “the incident was distressing but would not alter Australia’s commitment.

The report notes:

But Afghans have expressed doubt that a single soldier could have carried out the shootings in houses more than two kilometres apart.

In a statement, the Taliban said ”sick-minded American savages” committed the ”blood-soaked and inhumane crime” in two villages in Panjwai, a rural region outside Kandahar that is the cradle of the Taliban and where coalition forces have fought for control for years.

The assailant, as yet unnamed, is a 38-year-old married staff sergeant with two children. He was reportedly from the same military base in Washington State as a rogue army unit that killed Afghans for sport. The ringleader of that ”kill team”, Calvin Gibbs, was convicted four months ago of murdering Afghan civilians.

Juan Cole reports:

An Afghanistan expert asked me, “How was an armed soldier able to leave a well-defended US military base at 3 in the morning without being challenged?” “There is more,” he said darkly, “to this than meets the eye.” Another troubling question is whether it was wise to send this man on 3 Iraq rotations and one Afghan one. Wouldn’t that warp a person, that intensity of years-long combat?

Juan Cole envisages the inexorable logic of withdrawal and defeat of imperialism. He quotes a historical case.

The Qur’an-burning scandal and this soldier going berserk are in many ways tangential to the Afghanistan War, but this does not mean they are unimportant. In the history of anti-colonial struggles (which is how the anti-US forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan see the war), almost accidental minor incidents frequently became rallying cry. The Dinshaway incident in Egypt in 1906 is a famous example. Some 13 years later there were hundreds of thousands of Egyptians in the streets demanding a British departure, which was achieved in 1922.

The reporting of such matters is always somewhat deranged:

Postscript:

Rafael Epstein and Dylan Welch in The Sydney Morning Herald report that members of the SAS are engaged in covert activities in Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Kenya.

Update: 31 March 2012

John Glaser at Antiwar.com reports on the SBS Dateline video suggesting that more than one person was involved in the massacre.

CNN summarizes the sequence of events.

Related articles

• National News: Reprisal fears after Afghan deaths (coventrytelegraph.net)
• Afghan Parliament Demands Public Trial by US in Shooting (waronterrornews.typepad.com)
• Taliban vow revenge for Afghans killed by American (newsok.com)
• Taliban vows revenge after US soldier kills Afghans in shooting rampage (abclocal.go.com)
• What might Kandahar shootings mean for U.S.? (cbsnews.com)
• US troops on high alert after Kandahar rampage (rt.com)
• Afghan Village Gun Rampage: US Sergeant ‘Did Not Act Alone’ (ibtimes.com)
• US soldier executes 16 Afghans (boston.com)
• There is a suggestion from Jim White atEmpty Wheel that the soldier might have been drunk.
• Afghan army says Taliban infiltration very sophisticated (alhittin.com)
• Cost of carnage: US compensates families of Kandahar slaughter victims (rt.com)
• U.S. paid $50K per slain villager in soldier’s alleged rampage that killed 16 Afghan civilians (nj.com)
• In Afghanistan, Taliban seems divided at a key juncture (stripes.com)
• Saul Landau is not sympathetic, Massacres and PTSD:
  

  Those ungrateful people! We came to help and this is the way they behave! The US soldiers who seek revenge and forego military discipline get labeled as crazy, not “homicidal Sergeants.” (Robert Fisk, “Madness is not the reason for this massacre,” The Independent, March 17)

  The US has lost the war in Afghanistan. After eleven years of US occupation, preceded by Taliban brutality, preceded by US-backed war-lords, who took over from a communist government supported by Soviet military occupation, Afghanistan is also full of people with PTSD.

  The US still pretends that their trained killers can also win hearts and minds. Will Washington learn from outgoing Secretary of Defense Bob Gates’ lesson? “Any future defense secretary who advises the president to send a big American land army into Asia, or into the Middle East or Africa, should have his head examined.” (quoted by Maureen Dowd, NY Times, March 21)

  To stop future massacres, send Bales back to Afghanistan for trial. Let’s see how “diminished capacity” plays in Kandahar – the scene of the crime.

• U.S. paid $50K per shooting spree victim, Afghans say (ctv.ca)
• Afghan massacre: US soldier ‘acted alone’ in Kandahar – BBC News (bbc.co.uk)
• US war veteran raps US war in Afghanistan, Kandahar massacre (promoteliberty.wordpress.com)
• Afghan army says Taliban infiltration very sophisticated (alhittin.com)
• Cost of carnage: US compensates families of Kandahar slaughter victims (rt.com)
• U.S. paid $50K per slain villager in soldier’s alleged rampage that killed 16 Afghan civilians (nj.com)
• In Afghanistan, Taliban seems divided at a key juncture (stripes.com)
• U.S.: Bales Killed Some, Came Back Again In Kandahar Massacre (crooksandliars.com)
• U.S. paid $50K per shooting spree victim, Afghans say (ctv.ca)
• Afghan massacre: US soldier ‘acted alone’ in Kandahar – BBC News (bbc.co.uk)
• US war veteran raps US war in Afghanistan, Kandahar massacre (promoteliberty.wordpress.com)