US Soldiers opens fire on civilians in Kandahar after "nervous breakdown"

[brigadista]

that should be Soldier -


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


A US soldier in Afghanistan opened fire on civilians after walking off his base in the southern province of Kandahar.

Provincial governor Tooryalai Weesa told the BBC 10 people had died and five were wounded in the shooting.

The soldier is reported to have suffered a nervous breakdown before the attack. He has since surrended himself to the US military authorities.

Nato said US and Afghan officials were working together to investigate the "deeply regrettable incident".

Local tribal leaders said women, children and men were among the dead in Panjwai district.

Protests over the attack have broken out in Panjwai district, and travel to the area should be avoided, the US embassy in Kabul has said.

High tensions
The soldier walked off the base at around 03:00 after suffering what has been described as a nervous breakdown, our correspondent says.

He then opened fire on civilians before handing himself over to the US military authorities.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said in a statement that US officials in Afghanistan would work with their Afghan counterparts to investigate what happened.

"This is a deeply regrettable incident and we extend our thoughts and concerns to the families involved," Isaf added.

The incident comes as anti-American sentiment runs high in Afghanistan following the burning of copies of the Koran by US soldiers at a Nato base last month.

US officials apologised, but the incident sparked a series of protests and attacks that killed at least 30 people and six US troops.

[Rusty Shackleford]

And in just a few hours, the resistance probably just made thousands more friends.

[ChrisK]

Of course he broke down. He's in a warzone, getting shot at, being told that everyone is the enemy with no end in sight and no logical reason for being there.

[NorwegianCommunist]

That soldier :thumbdown:

[Red Storm]

The soldiers are so caught up in all of this. Just as much as any other and we must reach them most of all. They play on their idealism or on their need for college money, or for a job and then wreck their world. They are never the same human beings after a trip to the sand box. Once they leave they never truly return in a metaphysical existential way. They are no longer the good father or husband, in some of their minds, and they have higher than normal rates of suicide and PTSD. These individuals have seen the class war as few others have. They have witnessed Imperialist muscle, might, brutality, and moral contradictions first hand.

They have witnessed it in foreign lands and in it's cruelest crudest form. It simply haunts them and for what? Resources? Morals and values that are fictitious even here? For freedom to be a wage slave destined to die from a work induced heart attack at 55? Our best men and women and some of our best comrades are the soldiers. These people are representative of our class. They are the workers.

[Red Storm]

I do not mean to neglect the suffering, or deaths of the Afghan civilians, in this story. This should not be overlooked. I just cannot help but see this as tragic on all sides and for everyone involved. No one wins and everyone loses.:(

[brigadista]

leaving afghanistan is long overdue for all concerned -otherwise much more of this I fear

[Princess Luna]

The US is fucked, this coupled with the recent Quran burning has damned any sliver of hope they had of winning. Also who wants to bet the US waits 6 years to try to the solider involved, and then simply demotes him to private as punishment.

[GoddessCleoLover]

I have long thought the outcome in Afghanistan would be a bad one, and events there are going from bad to worse.

[Os Cangaceiros]

The US is fucked, this coupled with the recent Quran burning has damned any sliver of hope they had of winning. Also who wants to bet the US waits 6 years to try to the solider involved, and then simply demotes him to private as punishment.

The USA never had any chance of winning. The Afghans had fought the British on-and-off for almost a century and the Russians for a decade, and that conflict was prosecuted much more aggressively than the way the USA has conducted this war. Much of their national identity is built around expelling invaders from their country. Now since the USA says it'll withdraw in 2014, all the Taliban needs to do is wait. The Afghan government has been barely able to control Kabul in recent years. :rolleyes:

[Le Rouge]

Civilians are SO dangerous. Kill 'em all! :glare:

[Human Lefts]

16-18 veterans commit suicide everyday. How tragic is that? They are sent to war to kill people without a personal cause, then come back and kill themselves because they can't handle it. I wish I could round up every single suicidal veteran and tell them, "Look. We're gonna go get the enemy that got you to do those atrocities...and the chances of making it out of this are better than suicide, so let's fucking go."

[Drosophila]

SUPPORT THE TROOPS!!!!!!!!!!111

Maybe if we just put more yellow bumper stickers on our cars all the problems will go away.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Interesting update which hasn't made the corporate media

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/03/11-0

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.

[Vyacheslav Brolotov]

This is the final straw. Come on; this happening right after the Koran burning scandal! I believe that the Afghan people are finally going to throw NATO out of their nation, and that makes me happy. Yet, it's sad that the Taliban and other Islamic fundamentalist groups will most likely lead the anti-NATO movement.

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Fucking wars...depresses the hell out of me

"The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations" - David Friedman

[Regicollis]

Support the troops - bring them home.

If there was any justice this soldier would be tried by an Afghani court. Of course that will never happen.

[Orlov]

Support the troops - bring them home.

If there was any justice this soldier would be tried by an Afghani court. Of course that will never happen.

Not only should this occupational soldier by tried by the law of Afghanistan but all United States soldiers should be accountable to the legal system of Afghanistan or directly sent home. The Afghani government in order to truly be a government of the people and independent needs to hold the United States accountable to their own cultural and legal system. The very fact that these occupational soldiers were drinking sickens me, in Afghanistan drinking is illegal because in Islam drinking is haraam. It only goes to show that the government of Afghanistan is refusing to be a legitimate government that will take a stance against occupational soldiers who have for the past 10 years been corrupting the entire country and insulting the dignity and respect of the Pashtun ethnic group.

[Ocean Seal]

I can't wait for the liberals to say that this was just one guy and not an institution.
I wish that I could show them how wrong they are. He was just a symptom of the war machine. What the fuck do the capitalist think will happen when they leave hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the mountains and tell them to fucking kill everything.

[milkmiku]

Oh my, you mean to say you have a skilled soldier, SF soldiers tend more skilled than their 11b counterparts primarily multilingual it is why they are SF, you deploy him to a desert not once but three times, You don't give him a clear objective, he knows he is over there for no goddamn reason, and you're surprised he snapped? There is a reason why the Army has had the highest rate of suicide in all of its history since we got involved in the middle east.

“Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy." - Henry Kissinger

This is the current state of our military and they know it.

[bcbm]

Yet, it's sad that the Taliban and other Islamic fundamentalist groups will most likely lead the anti-NATO movement.

most likely? al qaeda and the taliban have been leading the anti-nato movement since 2001

[robear]

And so the U.S. reputation in the middle east and the world is further tarnished. Although a terrible thing happened, I'm glad it was reported. The U.S. has killed thousands of more innocent civilians since it has been in the middle east since 2001, and it's about time that the people know about the atrocities that have been committed there.

[Guy Incognito]

I feel for the families. I hope he's tried, quickly sentenced, given the psychiatric help he needs so that he can understand what he's done, and spends the rest of his days in Levinworth.

[brigadista]

all this news is making the film redacted look like a documentary

[Os Cangaceiros]

I guess the latest news is that the Taliban has suspended peace talks with the US, and Karzai wants the US out by 2013.

[Bostana]

Real surprised that the U.S. Media "forgot" to report this.