OT - US Soldier kills 16 Civilians in Afghanistan

[Cdnwolf]

For the second time in five months, a U.S. soldier from a Washington military base is accused of committing atrocities against civilians in Afghanistan.

The unidentified soldier, an Army staff sergeant, is accused of firing on civilians, killing 16, in a house-to-house shooting rampage in two villages on Sunday, according to officials from NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

[TicToc]

Have you been to Afghanistan. There is no such thing as "house to house". At best it is small Qualat to small Qualat. For those who don't know imagine a Qualat as a small version of the Alamo. I am not surprised that this event happened, but please refrain from the inflammatory way in which you spread the headline news.

[ArmySGT.]

[Fusilier]

Have you been to Afghanistan. There is no such thing as "house to house". At best it is small Qualat to small Qualat. For those who don't know imagine a Qualat as a small version of the Alamo. I am not surprised that this event happened, but please refrain from the inflammatory way in which you spread the headline news.

Oh for fuck sake man...

It's hardly something to get worked up about when it is very clear that he cut and pasted the information straight from the press release and which the terminology has no bearing on it whatsoever anyway.

[TicToc]

Worked up is a bit of an exaggeration. Would you prefer that I say "I'd appreciate it if you read fully, assimilated, and then decided to pass along to the online masses only information what was simply presenting facts rather than attempting to incite an emotional response with a simple sentence regardless of it's inherent inaccuracies"

Because if you would prefer I can go back an edit it to read as such.

[Fusilier]

Worked up is a bit of an exaggeration. Would you prefer that I say "I'd appreciate it if you read fully, assimilated, and then decided to pass along to the online masses only information what was simply presenting facts rather than attempting to incite an emotional response with a simple sentence regardless of it's inherent inaccuracies"

Because if you would prefer I can go back an edit it to read as such.

Perhaps you should edit your comment. He passed on the information EXACTLY as it was presented. If you have a problem with the post you ought to take it up with ISAF media relations.

[TicToc]

Well posted, you sure got me. Gee willickers, you sure got straight to the point and intent of the message I had. Your great internet wit and intellect has subdued my request for reason and fairness. You are absolutely right I had a problem with direct quotation rather than the quoting of inflammatory speech regardless of its origin. Well won better man.

[Fusilier]

Well posted, you sure got me. Gee willickers, you sure got straight to the point and intent of the message I had. Your great internet wit and intellect has subdued my request for reason and fairness. You are absolutely right I had a problem with direct quotation rather than the quoting of inflammatory speech regardless of its origin. Well won better man.

Says the guy who's first post to the forum is to accuse the OP of making an inflammatory post when all he did was copy and paste the very same thing everyone is already reading in the news.

[TicToc]

Ok troll, you win. This beyond a waste of time for me to spend on you. Simply said I prefer that facts rather than emotion is presented. That being I am done.

[copeab]

Who gives a damn if it's house to-house, qualat-to-qualat or craphole-to-craphole. Sixteen people -- nine of them children -- are dead and it appears a US soldier did it for no justifiable reason and US soldiers not involved in the shooting will die in retaliation as a result.

[Fusilier]

I prefer that facts rather than emotion is presented.

What emotion The OP simply cut and pasted from the news. He didn't add anything from his own thoughts on the matter so there is absolutely no emotion included in the post.

[ArmySGT.]

All aboard!

Now seating First Class Passengers foooooooooooooorrrrrrrr the

" I hate Americans train" now seating "I hate Americans"!

Boarding passes please! Form a queue Canadians! Britons! Australians! New Zealanders!

No pushing! Thank you!

[Webstral]

We should bear in mind that this latest horrible incident carries with it a significant emotional content. Rightly or wrongly, anyone who is serving or who has served in Afghanistan is likely to have a strong response to having this kind of event spread on a non-media website. I wont say whether this response is reasonable, but I will say that it is completely understandable. With that in mind, Im going to ask everyone to let these sorts of things go and not engage in the sort of one-upmanship that characterizes so much of the Internet.

I havent been to Afghanistan. What Ive seen in video and heard from other vets suggests that there are certain physical similarities between a compound in rural Afghanistan and a compound in rural Iraq. I can see how the press might not make distinctions. Even if the reporter knew the difference between a house and a qualat, an editor Stateside is unlikely to let a Afghan word describing something outside the experience of the average American make it into print or onto a screen. From the standpoint of media management, news has to sell, not confuse.

Nine children This is one of those moments during which I lose my articulation. Nothing short of profanity seems adequate to express my reaction. Nine. Children. Yes, American soldiers will die. I have a morbid curiosity regarding the soldiers background. How many tours has he served Did he just get served with divorce papers What else is going on in his home life Has his unit been hard-hit of late Did his best friend just die What motivated him to sign the death warrant for 16 Afghans and a yet-to-be-determined number of American troops

[Badbru]

I must admit I was pretty sadened by this when I heard about it. My initial reaction was oh christ what next, why don't we just start air striking mosques. Burning Korans, now shooting up the civvies, it seems to me the
hearts and minds campaign has just been set back to zero.

Australian forces lost several troops in a string of incidents late last year. It seemed you couldn't turn the news on without hearing of another. This naturally reignited the debate about pulling out but I believed some of the things I'd been reading about successes on the ground and that we should stay the course. Now however, I'm really discouraged by the effects these few incidents have, and will likely have, on the course of the continuing effort.

It just feels like a massive setback.

[Targan]

Holy crap. We have more posts today than for most of the previous week but the first thread I open up to read is this one and BAM! Where to begin

For starters, welcome to the forums, TicToc. An unfortunate start to your time with us here but let's make a fresh start, eh How about you go to the "Introducing myself" thread (http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.phpt=2698) and tell us a bit about yourself. I take it you've spent some time in Afghanistan We value combat experience here, I for one would be interested in your input on military matters.

The moderators here prefer to keep only a light hand on conversations and generally that's fine as posters here tend to show respect for one another. If you have a serious problem with something someone has posted perhaps you might consider contacting the poster personally in a private message Or contact a moderator and we'll take a look at the situation. Jumping feet-first into verbal combat mode in open forum isn't generally very constructive.

Just a reminder, if you post something here that has been cut and pasted from another published source it really needs attribution. In this case Fusilier seems to have found the source of the OP's post. So the original author is the person you probably should be upset with, TT, not the OP. Really the OP's only mistake was not to cite the source of his posted quote. Off-topic threads are welcome and old hands here usually put OT at the start of the thread title to make it clear that it isn't part of the general T2K and gaming discussion.

I'm a bit confused by your "I hate Americans train" comment, ArmySGT. I'm hoping it was intended as tongue-in-cheek. The comments in this thread preceding that weren't particularly anti-American IMO. I'm guessing most or all of the members here would be anti-shooting civilians though. I gotta tell you man, for me personally, if I hated Americans in general I wouldn't be a moderator here.

Other than that, I agree with the posts by Webstral and Badbru. The mass shooting of women and children anywhere in the world is a very sad event.