Posted on 03/11/2012 5:35:47 AM PDT by DCBryan1
A US soldier has killed 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, after entering their homes in Kandahar. Sky sources said the Afghan victims also included women and elderly men.
Minister of Border and Tribal Affairs Asadullah Khalid, who is investigating the incident, said the soldier entered three homes, killing 11 people in the first one.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) coalition confirmed the incident but did not release the number of killed or injured.
Sky defence reporter Mark Stone said: "Details are still sketchy and various death tolls have emerged.
"It appears to be an isolated incident and the soldier is believed to have been a staff sergeant."
Isaf Deputy Commander Lt Gen Adrian Bradshaw said: "I wish to convey my profound regrets and dismay at the actions apparently taken by one coalition member in Kandahar province.
"I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorised ISAF military activity."
According to the Panjwai district governor office, seven people died and up to 17 injured were injured in the rampage.
The injured have been treated for their wounds at Nato medical facilities.
Protests were held over the Koran-burning incident
The US embassy in Kabul attempted to quell expected Afghan unrest by also issuing an apology.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
I really don’t know why there was so little coverage of these murdered officers. They were shot in the head in a small room. Where is the perp? Why were these guys targeted?
So, because that whack job shot up a bunch of folks at Fort Hood it is ok for this guy to go on a spree?
You have an unfortunate sense of justice.
Let’s not confuse people, things and ideas. Islam is an idea, the Koran is a thing and Muslims are people. I can accept your belief that Islam is devilish, but not the individual Muslims themselves.
Let me show you how I conclude that. There are about 2 billion Muslims worldwide. Assuming that 1/2 are too young or too old to be violent Jihadis that leaves 1 billion potential violent Muslims.
1% of 1 billion is 10 million jihadis. So 99.5% of all Muslims aren’t massively dangerous or even terrorists. That’s a lot of terrorism and it just isn’t happening at that scale worldwide.
Is Islam dangerous and destructive? I believe it is. As an idea Islam appears incompatible with liberty as understood in the West and particularly American Liberty. That said, moderating Islam is the only wise course to take. You do that by engaging Islamic countries in as free trade as possible and move them out of the middle-ages into the 21st century. Civilization is very civilizing.
I think you’re right about the Persian people, but they tend to be better educated than most Muslims. I really like Iranians and the Lebanese too. I’d be willing to be that you’d see an Iranian liberated under the Shah a la Chile under Pinochet. The only way out of a theocracy is violent bloodshed.
It is the dictatorial and socialistic aspect, coupled to tribalism, that keeps these areas backward. Jihadis and mad men are drawn from these peasants who live in 12th century conditions and a niche of the educated who reject modernity. Here’s a great article from the Feb 06 Smithsonian: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/presence-feb06.html
From the article: “In America, unlike in Egypt, dreams could come true. Qutb understood the danger this posed: America’s dazzle had the power to blind people to the real zenith of civilization, which for Qutb began with Muhammad in the seventh century and reached its apex in the Middle Ages, carried triumphantly by Muslim armies.”
Radical Islam is at war with modernity. They’ll lose, unless they get a bomb. Hence attacking Iran is a good idea.
I also have pondered long about God ordering the killing of an entire tribe top to bottom peculiar, but as I’ve grown older and experienced more and more I don’t find it as shocking. God knows his plan and we don’t.
I pray for her safety.
You can’t moderate Islam. It’s been tried before...and it’s lost every time. That was basically what Bush was attempting to do in Afghanistan, and as long as it was advantageous and safer for Karzai to appear “moderate,” he did so. But that means we have to be there every moment of the day, keeping them “moderate” only because they’re scared of us.
As soon as it became obvious that they had nothing to be scared of, they went right back to their old Islamic ways, and there is absolutely nothing that is going to change that. Islam is vicious and violent at its core, and unless it is completely suppressed, it will burst forth again.
We should never have allowed either Iraq or Afghanistan to enshrine Islam in their constitutions. We blew our chance to make a serious change there (which, again, Muslims will do only when they’re scared of a more powerful force) and to throw away more American lives trying to create “moderate” Islam out of a fanatical, irrational, 7th-century Arab-supremacy cult is shameful.
We should simply have leveled Mecca, destroyed the black rock and set these people free from the Satanic evil that is behind Islam.
And you think that “free-trade” (really “free” ?)is civilizing ? I suppose you are kidding !
Culture, sciences,philosophy , arts and ...the christian Gospel are civilizing. That means that civilization is a hard and long way needing work !
Don’t fool people and don’t fool yourself . We must wage a cultural “war” otherwise , with you “holly” free-trade you will be owned and used as a tool by islamist activists.
BTW you should learn somethings about the european , christian, so-called middle-age which is not separated from other historical periods( universities, hospitals and cathedrals...does it sound familiar to you ? )
If 2 billion violent Muslims were right now on Jihad you’d not be safe in your own home.
Here’s some polling: http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2011/1121_arab_public_opinion_telhami.aspx
“The use of the Internet continues to expand rapidly, with over a quarter of users saying they acquired access only in the past year, while a total of over 40% say they’ve acquired use over the past three years.”
You’re dealing with a population who’s been lied to for centuries a ME version of the Iron Curtain, perhaps it could be called an Islamist Curtain. These people make Appalachia appear modern. Once they get a taste of the good life the dictators and their imam enablers will have a hard time of it. There will be bloodshed as there is belief involved, but most human beings prefer modernity to the 12th century.
Nope - no one learned a thing from History - in Afghanistan or anywhere else.
Curious how all of this damage could be done by one man. Did he snap on his own or did he see a Queen of Hearts? Did the Afghanis really make it up that there were more soldiers than just the Rogue? Did he/they go in full uniform? Who do you trust???
I can understand your frustration and concern, but mass murder is unAmerican. We believe in law and as Christians in a higher law than even that.
You are confusing tribalism with republicanism. The vast majority of Muslims are moderate. We cannot compare their worst to our best. That most Muslim countries are highly tribalistic is why you see such a Machiavellian outcome in our relations with them. Have you been to Cook County?
A real "moderate" Muslim is considered to be an apostate.
Our military has sacrificed blood and lives, and all these muslims can do is get upset when a book is burned? What kind of gratitude is that?
I believe this soldier realizes that muslims can't be trusted, none of them, and he acted out in the only way he knew to do.
What do the rest of you think?
The vector for “culture” has always been trade throughout human history. The Internet is the best means to wage the war of modernity if you wish to wage a cultural “war”. I say, yes, go ahead and bring Islam into the modern world. You’ll find it naturally moderating.
I don’t understand your final paragraph at all.
If he murdered theses people in cold blood id leave him in the hands of the Afghans. I don’t think we want that man coming home and roaming our streets.
Don’t know who you are ...but no one compares their “worst” to
“our” “best”. The only relevant and fair comparisons are Gospel and Koran, Jesus-Christ and Muhamad , Christian civilizations and countries versus muslim “countries”(invaded)
and “civilization” !
-- and just exactly who is this to comment? This entire thing should be an Article 32 investigation by the US military and not some a$$hat Limey on the pages of Skynews.
Exactly. The media can't be trusted.
In the recent Rush/Fluke brouhaha the referred to Ms. Fluke as "young girl" and "young student". She's 30.
I agree with you on the fact that we are on the 21th century !
Great news .
I think that you have a liberal, ie wrong , understanding of the problem and a wrong understanding of what is culture .
Modernity is not a synonym of goodness and truth and progress in every fields of human activities . Or you missed some part of history or you have a fantasmatic rosy vision of modernity which is a kind of (fake)religion.
J.Christ lived 2000 years ago and Aristotles 2350 years ago... It’s absolutly not a question of age and time.
Islam is wrong and bad and always will be but we can influence some muslim people by culture ie science, philosophy,art and christian teachings.
Culture need individual learning and hard and patient work.
Internet is only a tool ! Depends on how and what for one is using it
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