Afghans went on a murderous rampage in response to the burning of Korans a few months ago. Six U.S. military personnel were killed in that aftermath.
The Afghan response to this incident has been remarkably muted in comparison, which leads me to believe that a U.S. soldier (or a group of U.S. soldiers) slaughtering entire families in their homes at night is something that strikes fear in these people in ways that nothing else ever did. I suspect Sgt. Bales (if was involved in this) and any other U.S. soldiers who may have been involved in it knew this better than anyone else, and acted accordingly.
P.S. I am also convinced that these people were not massacred at random, but that the families were deliberately targeted.
War is hell. Just ask the men who roamed the central highlands of Vietnam with Sam Ybarra and Task Force Oregon back in 1967-68.
It doesn’t sound like our soldiers to let one guy take all the heat for it though. It looks like a set-up against a guy that was very well-liked and for good reason.
The Afghan soldiers are still murdering coalition troops. The US media hasn’t been reporting much of it because they’ve been focused on Trayvon instead, but the killing is still going on.
It does seem goofy, though, that Panetta showed a sign of distrust to HIS OWN troops right around that time. Forcing our guys to disarm in a combat zone before Panetta would be with them is a bad message. And the idea of making all the US troops gather in one area away from the villages so the Taliban could kill them all in one swoop is crazy. Did the military comply with Karzai’s wishes on that?
I have no way of knowing what really happened. All any of us have is theories, and it seems like the military is hell-bent on it staying that way, even for Bales’ defense team. I just know it stinks to high heaven.