Just keep up the mantra: 'We are the good guys; we are the good guys...'ad infinitum

[Peter Lemkin]

Well, I certainly agree with Jan and Lauren that most of the information on this incident is missing - purposefully withheld. That is likely not a very deep political event - just the Military acting as the Military always does to cover its ass and hide embarrassing things - no matter how ugly they were [Tillman, Mai Lai, Feludja..ad nauseum]. But how such incidents get their genesis and timing often ARE deep political events. The number of soldiers [active or former] who suddenly go on a shooting spree in the USA or where they have been sent to 'pacify' the population is alarming and [in my mind] not in proportion to what one would expect from a few deranged or traumatized by warfare. This one seems especially horrible, in that it seem to have involved a lot of travel between villages [time to cool down and stop] and execution-style killings of non-combatants in their homes [so obviously not the 'enemy' unless one see the enemy as all Afghans]. Then the soldier supposedly turns himself in - odd in and of itself. These types are usually followed by a suicide or 'suicide' and there are many indications from all those who witnessed and survived that there were MULTIPLE gunmen. I just fear that it will be months or years before this is cleared up even partially. [We still don't know what happened to the man in the Northface bag, do we!] To force Obama's hand or ruin his chances of winning the election are two possibilities of many more I could think of. While they spy on our 'private' information and communications - their own information - even about what has gone on in the open - is kept secret. Such is the state of the World we now inhabit. They will attempt to tell us what they want us to hear and believe - the truth be damned. I just hope some truth emerges. Whatever the truth, I still think the Afghanis will react with a vengeance sooner than later [i.e. the deaths have just begun on this incident!]