US Soldier in Kandahar Killing Spree

15 Comments

1. 

   Arthur Gilroy on March 11, 2012 at 1:38 pm

   Ooops!!!

   “Ops!!!”, to be a little more accurate.

   Sometimes the operators get a little…confused.

   And some of those times…not all of them, as the long history of Abu Ghraib before it was outted will attest…they get caught.

   The advantage of drone warfare?

   Non-accountability.

   If some vicious son-of-a-bitch in an air-conditioned office hundreds or thousands of miles away from the crime scene gratuitously pushes a button that kills 16 people…no harm done. No one to blame. Jes’ another “accident”, like a bad car or bus accident.

   The U.S. will be largely out of the personal war business very soon.  They will leave that to the hirelings. Just as have media assassinations taken the place of good, old fashioned wetwork, soon the United Skynet of America and its allies will simply push buttons to get things done.

   Wetwork?

   Naaaahhhh…

   Network instead.

   

   It’s so much more…modern!!!

   

   Oh yes.

   That it is.

   Cleaner.

   Neater.

   Until of the course the computerized chickens come home to roost.

   

   i got yer angry birds.

   Right here!!!

   

   What goes around comes around. Always and forever.

   Every time.

   You can bet on it.

   Every time.

   AG

2. 

   Oui on March 11, 2012 at 2:44 pm

   .

   US soldier kills 16 Afghans, deepening crisis

   (The Guardian) – The attack took place in two villages in the Panjwai district of southern Kandahar province. The villages — Balandi and Alkozai — are about 500 yards (meters) away from a U.S. base. The shooting started around 3 a.m., said Asadullah Khalid, the government representative for southern Afghanistan and a member of the delegation that went to investigate the incident.

   “This may have been the act of a lone, deranged soldier. But the people of Afghanistan will see it for what it was, a wanton massacre of innocent civilians.”

   A resident of the village of Alkozai, Abdul Baqi, told the AP that, based on accounts of his neighbors, the American gunman went into three different houses and opened fire.

   “When it was happening in the middle of the night, we were inside our houses. I heard gunshots and then silence and then gunshots again,” Baqi said.

   Twelve of the dead were from Balandi, said Samad Khan, a farmer who lost all 11 members of his family, including women and children. Khan was away from the village when the incident occurred and returned to find his family members shot and burned. One of his neighbors was also killed, he said. It was unclear how or why the bodies were burned.

   An AP photographer saw 15 bodies between the two villages caught up in the shooting. Some of the bodies had been burned, while others were covered with blankets.

   The Kill Team: How U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan Murdered Innocent Civilians

   Four soldiers from a Stryker brigade out of Lewis-McChord, Washington, have been sent to prison in connection with the 2010 killings of three unarmed men during patrols in Kandahar province’s Maiwand district, which is just northwest of Panjwai. They were accused of forming a “kill team” that murdered Afghan civilians for sport — slaughtering victims with grenades and powerful machine guns during patrols, then dropping weapons near their bodies to make them appear to have been combatants.

   • Zhari district birthplace of Mullah Omar and the Taliban  

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

3. 

   Oui on March 11, 2012 at 4:47 pm

   .
   No one knows better than Connie Chapman that almost 150 years since troops came home with “soldier’s heart” after the Civil War, the U.S. military is still struggling to identify and treat what’s now called PTSD.

   Wal-Mart Therapy Tried as Pentagon Copes With Traumatized Troops

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

4. 

   Hurria on March 12, 2012 at 3:28 am

   What the hell do they expect when they intentionally systematically break down a person’s sense of self and natural human inhibitions against committing violence on their fellow man, turning them into trained killers, then send them to a foreign land brainwashed to believe that they are fighting an enemy that “hates their freedoms” and wants to destroy their way of life?

   • 

     Arthur Gilroy on March 12, 2012 at 7:47 am

     What do they expect? They expect an efficient, remorseless killer of human beings, Hurria. And in the vast majority of cases, that’s what they get. The ones who fall off the train? Hey…it’s just collateral damage.

     This is true of any military system. You think there aren’t any crazy al Queda or Taliban fighters?

     Please.

     It is the idea…and practice…of war itself that is at fault here. There no “honorable” war, there is just slaughter, just winning and losing.

     And yet…and yet…

     Check out my sig.

     Things don’t go wrong, they simply happen.

     The universe runs the game, Hurriah. Not the other way around.

     Blame?

     May as well blame the weather for all the good it will do you.

     Everybody talks about the wesher, but nobody does anything about it.-Mark Twain

     Everybody talks about war, but nobody does anything about it.-AG

     Yup.

     So it goes.

     War itself is collateral damage.-The Universe

     Bet on it.

     If as you and/or I sit wherever we are typing and reading a gas explosion blows us up real good…who would be at blame?

     May as well blame the universe.

     It’s too big to care.

     Bet on that as well.

     And the universe keeps on spinning.

     Later…

     AG

5. 

   Oui on March 12, 2012 at 5:36 am

   .

   Army Ranger killed self at JBLM before 9th tour of duty

   (Bellingham Herald) Dec. 22, 2011 – Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann, 25, of the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, killed himself June 28, 2011 at Lewis-McChord. The Yelm soldier left behind a wife and two children.

   His widow, Ashley Joppa-Hagemann, pushed for the Rangers to give him a memorial service in the same manner that it honors soldiers who die in combat. Her efforts to draw attention to his suicide peaked when she challenged Rumsfeld at Rumsfeld’s Lewis-McChord book-signing event. She was escorted off the base.

   “Simply put, Jared was one of our nation’s best, ” said Maj. Tony Keller, commander of Hagemann’s Ranger company. “He signed up to serve his nation and protect his family during a time of war. Remember him for his actions overseas while he defended this great country, and remember him as a loving father to his sons.”

   Ashley Joppa-Hagemann shared in August that her husband showed strains after returning from a deployment in 2009. She said he’d drink too much to forget what he had seen and tried to kill himself three times. When he was released from a mental health commitment in 2009, she said he wanted to resign from the Rangers but was pressured by comrades to stay in.

   The Ranger regiment said in a press release that Hagemann had re-enlisted for another six years during his last deployment, in 2010-11. The Ranger battalion returned from Afghanistan last week, ending its 15th deployment since the war on terror began.

   Widow says Ranger killed self to avoid 9th tour

   (AZ Central) – In 2010, he received a glowing evaluation with top marks and raters noting his unparalleled loyalty to the Army and Rangers and outstanding potential. Later that year, he would return to Afghanistan for his eighth combat tour. His eight tours lasted, on average, about four months, according to the Army.

   His wife said he was growing increasingly frustrated and repeatedly asked to leave the Rangers unit. The Army’s DeSantis said the battalion leadership was not aware of any request for him to leave the unit.

   “In the last month, he put a gun to his head three times. He told me every day was a struggle to wake up and want to live,” Joppa-Hagemann said. “He said the things he had seen and done, no God would have forgiven him.”

   Demand justice for SSG Jared Hagemann

   (March Forward) – SSG Hagemann was determined to not deploy again. But in the U.S. military, there is a standard response for trying to receive help for PTSD.

   “People mocked him. They judged him,” said Ashley. “They told him to `man up. Take a sleeping pill. You’re fine. It’s all in your head.'”

   SSG Hagemann was assigned to tasks and duties reserved for “troublemakers.” As for his PTSD symptoms, he was ordered to attend an “anger management” class. This was the extent of the treatment he received.

   • Joint Base Lewis-McChord called “most troubled” U.S. base  

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

   • 

     Oui on March 12, 2012 at 9:00 am

     .

     Madigan team reversed 285 PTSD diagnoses, Sen. Murray says

     (Seattle Times) – The Army Medical Command has identified some 285 Madigan Army Medical Center patients whose diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder were reversed as they went through a screening process for possible medical retirements, according to U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.

     Last month, Madigan’s screeners for PTSD were removed from that duty while the Army Medical Command investigates why diagnoses were changed. Soldiers diagnosed with PTSD as they prepare to leave the military can qualify for a medical retirement that offers a pension and other benefits.

     The soldiers were screened by Madigan’s forensic psychiatry team over a five-year period dating back to 2007, and will be invited to undergo new reviews at Madigan or other military facilities, according to a release Wednesday by the Western Regional Medical Command, which has oversight over Madigan.

     Soldiers eligible for review were identified from a review of 1,500 soldiers screened by the forensic team for all types of mental-health conditions, the command said. The investigation at Madigan was triggered, in part, by complaints from soldiers who had previously been diagnosed with PTSD but were later accused by the screening team of exaggerating symptoms and sometimes malingering.

     Earlier this year, 14 soldiers underwent new mental-health reviews at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Six had their PTSD diagnoses reinstated. The investigation also was spurred by concerns that Madigan doctors involved in the screening were unduly influenced by worries about the escalating costs of paying benefits to those who qualify for medical retirements.

     "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

6. 

   Oui on March 13, 2012 at 4:14 am

   .

   Afghan shooter was sniper from JBLM Stryker Brigade plus video of witnesses.

   SEATTLE — The U.S. soldier suspected of gunning down at least 16 Afghan civilians was from a Joint Base Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade and was attached to the village stability program in support of the special operations task force,

   The soldier was deployed to Afghanistan on Dec. 3 with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, according to a congressional source, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. He was attached Feb. 1 to the village stability program in Belambai, a half-mile from one of the villages where the attack took place, the source said.

   A source told CNN that the accused soldier is a sniper who was trained to hit targets at 800 meters. The soldier, who has been in the military for 11 years, served three tours in Iraq and is married with two children, was being held in pretrial confinement in Kandahar by the U.S. military while Army officials review his complete deployment and medical history.

   CBS reported that the soldier’s family has been moved onto the base for their own safety.

   Afghan villagers moved back home to find peace, but death found them

   • Mass slaughter shocking, but not surprising

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

7. 

   Hurria on March 13, 2012 at 11:27 pm

   So, they are working overtime to portray this guy who murdered 16 human beings, including multiple children, as a victim. How come the Iraqis and Afghans who kill American soldiers who have violently invaded their country and are violently enforcing a lengthy occupation don’t get the same consideration?

   • 

     Oui on March 13, 2012 at 11:58 pm

     .
     You mean the Afghan,  Pakistan or
     Saudi terrorist? Certainly not our friends from Israel.

     "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

     • 

       Hurria on March 14, 2012 at 11:37 am

       No, certainly not your “friends” from Israel.

   • 

     Arthur Gilroy on March 14, 2012 at 4:06 pm

     You wrote:

     Re: US Soldier in Kandahar Killing Spree (4.00 / 3)

     What the hell do they expect when they intentionally systematically break down a person’s sense of self and natural human inhibitions against committing violence on their fellow man, turning them into trained killers, then send them to a foreign land brainwashed to believe that they are fighting an enemy that “hates their freedoms” and wants to destroy their way of life?
     by Hurria (Muslawia@gmail.com) on Mon Mar 12th, 2012 at 03:28:07 AM EST

     And then you wrote:

     So, they are working overtime to portray this guy who murdered 16 human beings, including multiple children, as a victim.

     Were you not portraying this guy as a victim in the first post?

     Someone who was intentionally, systematically broken down in terms of his own sense of self and natural human inhibitions against committing violence on his fellow man, someone who was turned into a trained killer, and then sent to a foreign land brainwashed to believe that he is fighting an enemy that hates the freedoms of his society and wants to destroy it?

     Sounds like a victim to me.

     I’d say a few kind words at his post-execution funeral if they’d let me, because I doubt very much that he can be saved.

     It’s the hustlers who run that game on him who should be blamed. He just didn’t have the mental and motional wherewithal to deal with it effectively.

     So it goes.

     AG

     • 

       Hurria on March 14, 2012 at 9:52 pm

       Arthur, apparently I failed to make my point clear. I was not arguing whether or not he is a victim, I was suggesting that it is deeply inconsistent, not to say blatantly hypocritical to work so damned hard making excuses for this guy while at the same time refusing to recognize that the people whose countries and homes and families and lives have been systematically and violently destroyed by people just like him are suffering horrors we cannot even imagine at his hands and the hands of tens of thousands of others just like him.

       The reality is that guys like him have choices every step along the way. They can say no to joining up, they can say no to being sent to foreign lands to kill and destroy. They can even say no to the brainwashing, as many have and do. The Afghans, the Iraqis, the Pakistanis, the Yemenis, and all the others whose countries have been subjected to massive and unrelenting U.S. military violence do not have a choice, have never had a choice, and never will have a choice.

       As for who is responsible for the carnage and the horror, at the end of the day we are all responsible for our own behavior, and I do not let “the troops” off the hook. Not for a moment. Lest you forget, “following orders” is not a defense.

       He’s the one who must decide,
       Who’s to live and who’s to die,
       And he never sees the writing on the wall.

       But without him,
       How would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
       Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
       He’s the one who gives his body
       As a weapon of the war,
       And without him all this killing can’t go on.

       He’s the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame…

       • 

         Arthur Gilroy on March 15, 2012 at 6:27 am

         Arthur, apparently I failed to make my point clear. I was not arguing whether or not he is a victim, I was suggesting that it is deeply inconsistent, not to say blatantly hypocritical to work so damned hard making excuses for this guy while at the same time refusing to recognize that the people whose countries and homes and families and lives have been systematically and violently destroyed by people just like him are suffering horrors we cannot even imagine at his hands and the hands of tens of thousands of others just like him.

         I agree wholeheartedly.

         But here is where I disagree:

         The reality is that guys like him have choices every step along the way.

         The reality is that “guys like him” do not have choices, any more than the stage hypnotist’s weak-willed subject has a choice about whether he will make a fool of himself in front of a theater full of people. “Guys like him” have been almost totally brainwashed by their families, their schooling and the media before they even enlist, and then the military finishes the job. Luckily, there really aren’t that many people like him…even the most gung-ho soldiers usually do not make a practice of walking out into whatever town they are occupying and murdering random civilians. It takes a special kind of insanity to do that on any side of a conflict…suicide-bent terror bombers or uniformed troops with automatic weapons.

         They can say no to joining up, they can say no to being sent to foreign lands to kill and destroy. They can even say no to the brainwashing, as many have and do.

         Again, I disagree. As nasty as the job appears to anyone with a clear head, if they could say no they would say no. Just like the people who voted for G.W. Bush. It was perfectly obvious what a viciously stupid ass he was, but people voted for him because they had no choice. Lots of people. Miseducated and media-tranced, they clomp-clomp-clomped into the voting booths and put a mass murderer into the White House.

         Twice.

         The Afghans, the Iraqis, the Pakistanis, the Yemenis, and all the others whose countries have been subjected to massive and unrelenting U.S. military violence do not have a choice, have never had a choice, and never will have a choice.

         True. They have been brainwashed the old-fashioned way, many of them. Tribal ties, fundamentalist religious proscriptions, the works. “Clomp clomp clomp” is the history of mankind.

         As for who is responsible for the carnage and the horror, at the end of the day we are all responsible for our own behavior, and I do not let “the troops” off the hook. Not for a moment. Lest you forget, “following orders” is not a defense.

         Hurria, there are people who do not believe that anyone really has much of a “choice,” and they have a point. Do people born into vicious poverty and permanent war have a choice? Obviously not. Not many ever escape such a fate. But…do people born into more pleasant circumstances who then turn around and participate in brutal crackdowns like what happened in Nazi Germany have a choice? They can be considered quantifiably insane. Did they “choose” to go insane? How did it happen? How does a country go crazy? Is there a “choice?”

         Further…does someone like me I have a choice? Murder affronts and appalls me, and I will not be involved in it unless there is clearly a danger to my immediate family and society. Did I “choose” to be that way? If so, then I suppose that I could “choose” not to be that way, right? But of course…I cannot choose that. It’s simply not natural to my nature. There’s no reason to be proud of it…it’s just who I am.

         Ditto for you and for every other human being on the planet.

         Who “chooses” to be who they are?

         Who?

         Not very damned many, for sure.

         So if some poor, drunken, murdering fool like this nutcase goes off like he did…in Topeka, Kansas or Afghanistan, same same…where’s the choice? And if he had no choice, how can he be blamed? He might need to be eliminated or at least imprisoned because he is permanently damaged and thus a threat to his surroundings, but blame? As I said above, you might as well blame the weather when there’s a nasty storm.

         DAMN that weather!!! It chose to fuck us up!!!

         No. Things don’t go wrong…they just happen.

         Blame the controllers who sent him over the edge with an automatic weapon in his hand?

         Again…did they actually “choose” to be who they are? Who would choose to be as viciously unhappy as is plainly the case with someone like Dick Cheney?

         

         If there is no choice then there is no blame.

         There is only self-protection.

         Sometimes called “justice.”

         A threatening presence?

         Eliminate it if necessary and then go on with your business.

         But blame it?

         Goddamned weather!!!

         Nope.

         Not me, anyway.

         You?

         OK.

         But…didja “choose” to be that way?

         Hmmmm….

         AG

8. 

   Oui on March 18, 2012 at 11:55 am

   .

   Neighbors say Afghan attack suspect was family man

   LAKE TAPPS, Wash. (AP) — Neighbors of a Washington state man accused of gunning down 16 Afghan women and children in a nighttime rampage describe him as a family man who was “just one of the guys.”

   Reporters swarmed a neighborhood in a rural, wooded community about 35 miles south of Seattle, as attorney John Henry Browne confirmed the suspect, his client, was Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales from Lake Tapps, Wash.

   Kassie Holland, who lives next door, said she would often see Bales playing with his two kids and the family together at the modern split-level home.

   “My reaction is that I’m shocked,” Holland said. “I can’t believe it was him. There were no signs. It’s really sad. I don’t want to believe that he did it.

   “He always had a good attitude about being in the service. He was never really angry about it,” she said. “When I heard him talk, he said, it seemed like, ‘Yeah, that’s my job. That’s what I do.’ He never expressed a lot of emotion toward it.”

   Bales has not yet been charged. He was flown from Kuwait and arrived Friday evening at a military detention center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., the military’s only maximum-security prison.

   Bales and his wife bought the Lake Tapps home in 2005, according to records. The home was placed on the market Monday, the day after the attack, and was listed at $229,000. Overflowing boxes were piled on the front porch, and a U.S. flag leaned against the siding.

   Bales completed 20 hours of anger-management counseling following a 2002 arrest at a Tacoma hotel for investigation of assault. Browne said the case involved a woman other than Bales’ wife, whom he married in 2005. The docket shows that Bales pleaded not guilty, underwent the 20 hours of anger management treatment, and the case was dismissed.

   Records also associated with Bales show that in 2009 he had a hit-and-run charge dismissed in municipal court in Sumner.

   Karilyn Bales’ blog, which was available Friday on the internet, described the ups and downs of military life.

   • Afghanistan shooting suspect Robert Bales faced financial troubles, records show

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."