[samiam]

Would make sense, but that would blow his cover. See what I did there?

[Dragon]

honestly, he should be turned over to the Afghan government.

That would be the best solution, but somebody should stick around to ensure he gets a psych evaluation and a fair, civilized trial. If done properly (ha ha) this could be a milestone in American-Afghani relations.

[samiam]

That would be the best solution, but somebody should stick around to ensure he gets a psych evaluation and a fair, civilized trial. If done properly (ha ha) this could be a milestone in American-Afghani relations.

That's entirely a formality. What do you think the psychiatrist is going to say? "Oh sure, he's perfectly sane?"

If there is a trial and he doesn't somehow get off with a slap on the wrist, I'll start believing this isn't a vast rightwing conspiracy.

[Polpolion]

ahahahahahahahahaha I was going to post this:

Sounds like a CIA + Jewlluminati conspiracy to me. What do you think?

Gulf of Tonkin Incident redux it looks like.

To the rest: whatever, I'm not going to multiquote and it really doesn't change how some in the military might want to keep up the war.

Ok, space ponies. But space ponies also burned a bunch of korans for no apparent reason too.

Open your eyes and connect the dots. Maaaan.

op is confirmed for conspiracy theory nutjob. inb4 moon landing was a hoax.

but then it said 2 unread replies and I saw this!

If there is a trial and he doesn't somehow get off with a slap on the wrist, I'll start believing this isn't a vast rightwing conspiracy.

[BlueFlames]

I don't buy it.  There's enough other targets around the world, waiting to be attacked, including at least one (Iran) that is a riper target,

We don't have any troops in Iran. What's the CIA to do, throw rocks across the border at them or something? That wouldn't prompt us to increase our troop presence in Iran either. Since there isn't any.

Iran....building nukes....fortifying facilities that refine weapons-grade Uranium....  Did you miss that over the course of the last decade?  When the troop count is '0', and you have friendly forces garrisoned on two of Iran's borders, it's pretty easy to escalate from 'sanctions' to 'invasion', assuming Iraq and Afghanistan are stable enough to be used as launching platforms.  Destabilizing Afghanistan accomplishes nothing, especially when we've had troops deployed for eleven years.  Vietnam, from the Gulf of Tonkin incident forward, only lasted twelve years, before Richard Nixon (R-CA) had to bow to political pressure and remove US troops.  Don't forget that the people who have to pull the trigger on an escalation are elected officials, who have to answer to a different authority than profit motive.

Would make sense, but that would blow his cover. See what I did there?

Trolololololol

[samiam]

I'm only 50% trolling. The other 50% of me thinks that a conspiracy is entirely possible and you haven't really said anything to explain why there was gunfire reported from multiple directions.

[Polpolion]

because the houses weren't all in the same spot?

[samiam]

Dudes can't teleport like that. Read the thread.

[NGTM-1R]

I'm only 50% trolling. The other 50% of me thinks that a conspiracy is entirely possible and you haven't really said anything to explain why there was gunfire reported from multiple directions.

Because it's Afghanistan, and everyone and his little dog too is armed. Random gunfire was a fact of life long before the US came to Afghanistan. This is one of the big problems that has faced the US adventure in the country.

Besides, the idea the military wants to keep the war going is hilariously wrongheaded and indicates to me you have no feel for how the military views Afghanistan. Afghanistan is getting their programs to upgrade their equipment killed, it's causing them morale problems. Most of them saw what happened to the Israeli army after their most recent adventure in in Lebanon was completely mismanaged, and remember the state of the Army between the end of Vietnam and 1982 or so. They've already invested a huge amount of effort in containing and preventing similar internal collapse (effectively, it must be admitted; the Army is in much better shape than it was about the time the Iraq surge took place) and the prospect of more angers them.

[samiam]

The people who were there seemed to find machine gun and pistol fire at 3 AM from multiple directions out of the ordinary, and they also claimed to have seen to groups of soldiers. One survivor also claimed multiple soldiers came into his house. Read the Time article.

At least the Afghan government is considering that there might be more than one shooter.

As for the military, well, they didn't try very hard to avoid the Vietnam war either.

[Dragon]

That's entirely a formality. What do you think the psychiatrist is going to say? "Oh sure, he's perfectly sane?"

If there is a trial and he doesn't somehow get off with a slap on the wrist, I'll start believing this isn't a vast rightwing conspiracy.

A psych could evaluate if he was in control of his actions or not. Basically, it could be a difference between a mental institution and death penalty.
Also, these "formalities" matter a lot more than you think. They show that the law isn't whatever judge feels like saying, but a real, reliable law. When there are no procedures or they're loosely adhered to, people start abusing the power they're given much more quickly.

[samiam]

Alright. Guess it depends on the psychiatrist though. If he ends up getting released after a few years of 'psychiatric care' after the whole thing blows over he's pretty much off the hook. Can't do anymore *covert operations*, though.

ed: As a matter of fact I don't think it's common practice to not just plain lock up or execute criminal psychopaths.

[Dragon]

Alright. Guess it depends on the psychiatrist though. If he ends up getting released after a few years of 'psychiatric care' after the whole thing blows over he's pretty much off the hook. Can't do anymore *covert operations*, though.

ed: As a matter of fact I don't think it's common practice to not just plain lock up or execute criminal psychopaths.

IIRC, such cases are under a careful observation even after being released (assuming that they are), not to mention he would be thrown out of the army. And social stigma connected with being mentally ill is quite significant.
Remember we're most likely talking PTSD here. Some people just can't handle the stress of the war, and this occasionally shows like that.

Also, it should be investigated how the heck did he get so far unsupervised, with a gun and ammo. A soldier under arms can't just walk away from his/her post, especially not alone. It seems that somebody screwed up, badly. And no, this wouldn't be a conspiracy of any kind, that would be way too obvious, too suspicious. Why was he able to leave his post? And if he didn't left his post, how did he sneak out carrying a weapon? Why was he alone (I don't think soldiers would split up and leave him alone for any reason)? These questions have to be answered, and I suspect a gross display of incompetence. Anyway, we need more data on this incident, and the government should provide it, or it might end badly.

[samiam]

You seem to really not want to say anything about how multiple soldiers were seen involved. There could be more than one person. How big of a conspiracy it is, I don't know. It might just be a unit of Green Berets who felt like killing people. But it doesn't seem like a lone crazy. Either that or Karzai is lying.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai also left open the possibility of more than one shooter in a statement Sunday. He initially spoke of a single U.S. gunman, then referred to "American forces" entering houses. The statement quoted a 15-year-old survivor named Rafiullah, who was shot in the leg, as telling Karzai in a phone call that "soldiers" broke into his house, woke up his family and began shooting them.

[NGTM-1R]

Because of course Hamad Karzai has never lied or simply gone around trying to provoke a reaction.

Right?

[samiam]

Why would he troll America like that though?

[samiam]

Ah, answer me. Don't just edit your post.

[NGTM-1R]

You hadn't posted when I went back to edit that. And frankly, you sound like you're trying to moderate there. It might help not to command.

Why would he troll America like that though?

In case you haven't noticed, he's spent most of his tenure engaged in trying to troll America in a number of ways, from talking shop with Iran to getting caught with his hand in the poppy jar and waving it off. He has behaved in increasingly capricious fashion towards the people who make his government possible as long as he has been in office.

[samiam]

Well, it's Karzai's conspiracy then. Since the villagers did report two groups of soldiers; must have been made up too.

Now watch the entire forum jump on the possibility that it's Karzai's fault since the CIA never does this stuff amirite.

[NGTM-1R]

What is it about that idea that appeals to you so, exactly?