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Monday, March 12, 2012

Update from the CFR: U.S. Sergeant Kills Afghan Civilians

Top of the Agenda: U.S. Sergeant Kills Afghan Civilians
A U.S. Army Sergeant allegedly killed at least sixteen Afghan civilians (NYT) deliberately in the Panjwai district of southern Kandahar Province on Sunday, prompting threats of retaliation by the Taliban. U.S. forces reportedly took the perpetrator into custody. The incident is likely to compound already strained U.S.-Afghan relations, which were pushed to new lows after it was revealed that NATO soldiers had burned Qurans at a U.S.-run air base north of Kabul. Both the U.S. and Afghan governments condemned yesterday's attack, while Western personnel in Afghanistan braced for a potentially violent backlash.
Analysis
"Early signs suggest that the repeated killings of U.S. troops had become too much for one of their own, who apparently tried to exact his own perverse revenge, Pentagon officials theorize. Does it represent a turning point? It surely bruises, if not breaks, the trust necessary for the U.S. to continue its mission of training enough Afghan security forces to let the U.S. leave by 2015," writes TIME's Mark Thompson.
"The NATO command needs to determine what happened in Kandahar--quickly--and take remedial action to ensure it cannot happen again. Coming right after the unintentional desecration of Qurans and the deaths of several NATO soldiers from rogue Afghan soldiers, this latest tragedy will further inflame anti-foreign sentiment in Afghanistan," writes Bruce Riedel for the Daily Beast.
"If apologies are insulting to Afghan intelligence, the psychiatric argument is pathetic. Explaining the sergeant's shooting spree and the horrific killing of 16 civilians, including nine children, and badly injuring others isn't the culmination of mere mental distress," writes al-Jazeera's Marwan Bishara.

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