Rogue US Soldier Kills 16 Afghan Civilians

[Philtaz]

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

Sadly there are a number of women and children involved.

There will no doubt be repercussions to this as tensions are already high.

[EDDIE51]

The Afgans are demanding that he his tried in Afganistan , no dought they will insist on the death penalty. How will the Yanks handle that ?

[Gromit]

// what sentence is he likely to get? //

There is a precedent for this after the Haditha massacre when 24 cilvilans were murdered. Eventually, only one stood trial and his sentence was...

// convicted of a single count of negligent dereliction of duty on January 24, 2012, receiving a rank reduction and pay cut but avoiding jail time. //

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haditha_killings

No wonder this latest soldier was not detered.

[sandyRoe]

Lt Calley spent a period of time under house arrest for his part in mass murder. The Americans don't seen to take it very seriously when it's their own troops who are involved.

[rov1100]

The Taliban can pose as civilians when it suits them. No wonder it leaves the armed forces in a state of confusion on who the enemy really is.

[NOX]

Yeah Rov, I can see how the highly trained American soldiers might be confused as to whether a 2 year old child might be an undercover Taliban operative. Best shoot it, just to be on the safe side eh?

[anotheoldgit]

/// The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, said prosecutors within the US military justice system could seek the death penalty for the killer. ///

Seeing that Britain and the EU are strictly against capital punishment.

Should we now distance ourselves from the US, if the death sentence is imposed on this rogue soldier?

[bednobs]

why aog? They've had the death penalty for many years already, yet we don't distance ourselves?

[pdust]

my thoughts exactly nox

[anotheoldgit]

bednobs

/// why aog? They've had the death penalty for many years already, yet we don't distance ourselves? ///

We have never been accused of being equally responsible, for a US crime.

So the least we can do is to distance ourselves from the demise of this NATO soldier, a fate we would never bestow on any European NATO service personnel.

[bednobs]

are we being accused of that now?

[DTCwordfan]

Not the first time NATO has been implicated for shooting unarmed civilians

http://www.dzambas.ch/dzblog/?p=667

[anotheoldgit]

DTcrosswordfan

/// Not the first time NATO has been implicated for shooting unarmed civilians ///

Is that coming from a site who's country murdered it's Royal Family, not to mention their atrocities committed during WW2 and after?

Then you have the cheek to blame the Daily Mail.

[DTCwordfan]

I am pointing out that this is not the first time, that is all.

The politics of the Balkans I could not really give a toss about.

The DM is shyte stirring rag that to call a newspaper is an insult to the other papers.

The other thing is that, unfortunately, this incident will not be the last. War stress frequently can turn folk in the field, fact of life, and yes it needs carefully managing. And especially this situation coming on top of those twazzes burning the Koran. How insensitive was that.

[DTCwordfan]

And what has the Daily Mail got to do with this thread, other than being your Daily Bible, AOG. You raised the subject of that rag, not me.