Fact: A terrible civilian massacre in Afghanistan, a nation we liberated, has occurred. No evidence exists to the contrary.
Fact: This was not an islamist extremist gathering, nor a nest of armed Taliban or AQ terrorists or their sympathizers. No evidence exists to the contrary.
Fact: This was not an official US government operation. No evidence exists to the contrary.
Fact: This was an act of mass murder against civilians, some as young as 2 or 3 years old, who were shot in the head and then had bodies partially set aflame. (I have seen some of the uncensored photographs). No evidence exists to the contrary.
Fact: This is an act or series of acts not representative of the United States of America, nor of the millions of fine young men and women who serve with honor in our US armed forces in the Afghan and other fields. I think of many a young soldier bringing a frisbee or football to an Afghan village and establishing rapport with little Afghan kids and building trust with these kids and villagers and becoming big heroes in their eyes, and then somebody else in the military destroying these efforts of goodwill right overnight in a flash, ending in the garrisoning of US troops in Afghanistan and positioning every Westerner in that country in considerable danger.
Fact: It cannot be rationalized anymore you can rationalize a guy not in uniform going into a stateside Denny's because of personal emotional problems and him just killing everyone in sight (this happened in San Diego, at Luby's in Texas and elsewhere). Someone should have been able to "double tap" the assailant on the spot and take him out. If captured alive, 95% of FR would call for the electrocution or lethal injection of such a mass murderer stateside. And there would be champagne toasts on this site at the moment of the Governor of the state announced the sentence was carried out.
Fact: Whomever is found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of these crimes in those Afghan villages, and all legal appeals are exhausted, particularly if the convicted criminal is found to not be insane AND had engaged in some kind of advance planning, then I would say, this person does not represent the USA and should indeed be given the maximum penalty under law: Death.
Fact: The man or persons who did these things, are no heroes.
The policy of straining our military with such foolish multiple deployments to no-win war theatres is also worth of due review and reflection.
However, we are a nation of responsibility, of good, of justice, of Christianity, and the person who did these things will likely have to pay the price with his own life. If that happens, there will be justice in my book.
If however we believe this doesnt amount to anything, then we have no more business being in foreign countries as a nation with a deployed military and I would say it is morally unsustainable and time to bring them all back. (I know from the three black servicemembers fresh in from "da hood", 2 Marines, one Navy seaman) guilty of violently gang-raping an innocent, small 12-year old Okinawan girl--who probably has since committed seppuku, (with duct tape and condoms purchased in advance with a rental car for the act also rented with that purpose--and later one of these men release killed his girlfriend before committing suicide, still incorrigible after 7 years in a Japanese prison) that just putting on a military uniform of the finest, most compassionate and upstanding, exceptional nation on the face of the earth does not automaticaly make any one of us an instant saint, above reproach no question. (If anything, the sacred uniform of our Armed Forces adds even more accountability and responsibility to our deeds, as protected and defender of the weak, defenseless and liberated. "We are, after all" as President Reagan would say, "AMERICANS".).
And a final word: Yes, the DEATH PENALTY for Islamist Enemy Combatant and Traitor Nidal Hassan if found guilty of the Ft. Hood jihad massacres. First that trial should be concluded, and this this Afghan Massacre trial concluded, in that order)
If he did it, it is indefensible. You stated it well. Sadly.
Also- we never "liberated" Afghanistan. We essentially bought off the warlords who hold the true power. Karzai and his puppet government have no power outside of Kabul.
As you stated, this joker is not representative if the US outside of the fact that he wears the uniform.
Normally, the death penalty is reserved for crimes without any mitigating circumstances. This crime is horrible, and the soldier DOES need to face the evidence.
However, his actions following the shootings and the circumstances leading up to it indicate someone who snapped. He made no attempt to conceal what he did...it seems he went, he shot, he gave himself up. Based on what little we know now, a defense based on insanity may work. It certainly seems enough to look at life in prison, and not death.