The US military have gone into damage control mode on this one. Days later they have failed to name the suspect, removed the suspect from Afghanistan to Kuwait, what, no faith in the Afghan justice system? Put stringent controls on communications from the base the suspect was at, shut down both phone and internet access to the zone the suspect operated in. Is this to be another US military white wash! One psychotic individual who acted alone.

Paul1405

I have the feelng that no matter what the evidence - or lack of evidence in this case - you will continue to believe that a group of soldiers was involved, that it was not a single psychotic individual.

Now I freely confess that I cannot be 100% certain either way. But given the way the story is developing I am now about 90% certain that the official story is correct at least in outline.

New evidence would make me change my mind. Maybe that is the difference between you and me.

Steven,

Even that American glove puppet Hamid Karzai is not satisfied with the way this is being handled by the US military machine.

Lawmakers in Afghanistan, meanwhile, are expressing outrage the US flew the soldier suspected of gunning down 16 civilians early on Sunday in two Afghan villages to Kuwait on Wednesday night.

They demand the suspect, a US Army staff sergeant, be tried in Afghanistan.

If this was to happen in say Darwin, Australia, 16 Australians are gunned down by a US solider from a US base in the NT would you expect the US military to not name the suspect, then fly the suspect to Hawaii?

Paul1405

The question I raised was not whether the US military "handled" the aftermath of the massacre in a satisfactory manner. We can certainly debate that.

The first question I raised was whether the massacre was the work of a single individual as the US military claimed or whether a drunken group of soldiers went out and shot 16 Afghan civilians as some Afghans told Reuters. Your dislike of the US military notwithstanding, it seems increasingly likely that on this occasion at least the US military was telling the truth. Even Al Jazeera has dropped the story of a drunken group.

The second question I posed was why did some Afghans assert that a drunken group of soldiers was involved? One possible answer is that they were reporting accurately and the US military is lying. That explanation seems increasingly unlikely. Not impossible. But given that even Al Jazeera is no longer making that claim the balance of the evidence seems to be against it.

So what is going on? Were the Afghans simply mistaken – in the terror of the attack they may well have thought a group was involved?

Were the Afghan's lying?

Were they caught up in hysteria?

Were they persuaded by the Taliban to tell a story that would paint the US in the worst possible light?

Could it be a little bit of all of the above?

These questions are independent of whether the US should or should not have flown the individual concerned out of the country.

Do you have anything to say about the actual questions I posed?

For the record. I think the US should leave Afghanistan immediately. I say this in the full knowledge that this will leave Afghan women to the tender mercies of the sort of people who throw acid in the faces of young girls impudent enough to attend school.

There are no "good guys" here.