Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Retired Major General James A. Marks, the senior intelligence officer during the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, said that the fallout from last weekend’s massacre could force a withdrawal from Afghanistan in a matter of weeks.
“It’s not inconceivable that that could happen,” Marks said, noting that Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s demand for occupation troops to remain confined to base could dramatically change the mission.
Karzai demanded NATO confine its troops on Thursday, during a meeting with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Panetta has been among the officials who insist that there will be no policy changes because of the massacre.
But they may not have a choice in the matter, as reports emerge that the Afghan parliament unanimously passed a resolution to abandon the current agreed upon terms of engagement for US troops (the Afghan War’s equivalent of a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA)), and is just waiting for Karzai to sign it. The resolution was passed because the US claimed the massacre suspect, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, was immune from Afghan prosecution for the killings.
Ironic: a pretext for being there in the first place was that Bushies wanted their own OBL perp walk. Now the US gov't may have to leave because Afghan's want to apply their own jurisdiction. That'd be a satifying ending.
And let us not forget that the Taliban government had expressed a willingness to turn him over…but with a slight caveat. They wanted to actually see something called evidence…
The audacity!
I gathered that's the case. There's some conformity in my comment, thanks for the fix. **** Cheney: "…that evidence has never been forthcoming." []
I find the fact that US Marines are running SS Death Squads through the villiges of Khandahar Province to be quite a disturbing development. I suppose now that the Marines know they have to stay for 2 more years, they figured they would just terrorize the locals to try to get them to stop bombing them with IED's, after all the guy who massacred Haditha Iraq just got a slap on the wrist.
At the same time on the same early morning they killed the Women and Children in Khandahar, some one shot up the offices of Peace Activist Malalai Joya in a cowardly terrorist attack. She is alive, but two of her Body Guards are in the Hospital with serious injuries. Keep your heads up.
Good. Hopefuly the U.S. military establishment will finally realize that modern versions of My Lai just are not going to 'cut it' in Afghanistan . . . or anywhere else for that matter.
Immune from prosecution? Well, there you have it. Maybe one of the reasons they ghosted his ass out of Afghanistan was to psychologically screw with their patsy to take the fall seeing as the villagers recount there being more than one killer involved. Karzai, puppet that he may be, can't lie indefinitely for the Americans.
10 years too late…
So sad, nine kids wasted, so terribly sad.
Ongoing news about this massacre, but antiwar and Jason Ditz still needs to censor the information, that the Afghan parliament investigation group did find out that it were 20 US soldiers who did provide this massacre. In not a single article this is menntioned – only that it was a single soldier is repeated many times. And clever – only quoting war mongering politicians that claim this, does not mean lying. Just quote the liar and you are no liar – is it really such easy? I think not.
No, the impact of this is apparently less in Afghanistan than the results of the Koran burning. And Karzai needs his "honor guard" of US troops and security contractors to prevent turf moves by ambitious fellow heroin traffickers.
I just read that accused killer, Robert Bales, worked as a stock broker and defrauded an Ohio couple of over one million in savings. Drunken serial killer and shyster-stock broker. It's all starting to make sense.
Sources?
Quick search: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/u-s-soldier-acc... Also!!!: "now claims to have no memory of slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians" !!!! Well that part was new to me, anyway.
Lets leave.
Retired Major General James A. Marks, the senior intelligence officer during the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, said that the fallout from last weekend’s massacre could force a withdrawal from Afghanistan in a matter of weeks.
Ha! It's more likely that the US will murder Karzai and have him replaced with a more compliant puppet.
If General Marks went into Iraq as the head of intelligence in 2003, and didn't point out immediately that there were no WMD's, all his statements in relation to this massacre is just the personal opinion of one of hundreds of retired Generals and Admirals. That and a couple bucks will get you a cafe latte.
Sgt. brave & free
leave but "not really" leave.
What do you think:
Could this Bales be a guy that witnessed the massacre by a large group of US soldiers, decided he didn't want any part, walked back to base and turned in gun? It is said he is in isolation. Just thinking out loud, or in print I should say.
There is no way this could have been one guy's work. The helicopter overhead, rapes, burnings, 2 villages involved….
Interesting theory, but "they" have too much lose if he spills that in court and he just might be believed. And anyway, there've been many soldiers who've spoken out about what they've seen and generally this sort of thing hasn't happened to them as far as I know. But it could be. If he ends up dead or in a coma or brain-damaged while in custody at Leavenworth or on his way to trial, I'd say your theory will be bang on, probably.
It's interesting to hear fellow Americans in my community and abroad speak in measured and sympathetic tones about the soldier – though apparently, according to witnesses, there was more than one. They say, "he was obviously deployed too many times" or "he is a regular guy, father of two". And my response is, "how would you tolerate such a massacre if it were done in your neighborhood?" Sympathy for the devil.
Something struck me today. People naturally want to compare this to a shooting rampage as happens from time to time in the USA and elsewhere in the West. But notice the differences between this and such incidents. The man leaves his base armed and doesn't start shooting until he is very far away from it in the villages. He does not fire on a single one of his comrades–so he has NOT 'snapped', gone berserk. He is targetting lucidly and deliberately. If he really was doing this on his own, he chose civilians–and children, in particular–because he knew they could not possibly fight back. Verdict: one cold s.o.b. Now the question is, was he alone?
Train people to be monsters and they behave like monsters.
Solution: End the wars. Dismantle the Military Industrial Complex. Invest the Peace Dividend in education.
President Hamid Karzai’s demand for occupation troops to remain confined to base could dramatically change the mission.
Change the effing mission? Does anyone REALLY know what the "mission" is? Pipelines? Al-Qaeda? Afghan's untapped mineral wealth? All or none of the above? One would think if the people were really understanding of our "mission" there, they would expect it to end sometime soon.
Extraction of minerals doesn't require a huge expensive foreign army presence…if the people living above it don't think you are robbing it from them.
What a cruel and costly joke.