16 civilians killed by US soldier!!!

[ravage]

Re: 16 civilians killed by US soldier!!!

@nikhil25

firstly, this guy was an isolated whackjob. there are less than a handful of episodes in the last decade of war in both iraq and afghanistan that come anywhere close to this man’s crime.

Just as theres a handful of episodes in the last decade where anyone has come anywhere near to Breivik’s crime. You’re offering a variant of the numerator/denominator logic that is far too lenient.

secondly, your comments about culture are misplaced. cultural influence on individual actions can be assessed be a very simple metric: level of public support/condemnation. that’s what tells us if the soil is fertile for crazies to grow. in pakistan, huge sections of the population either condone suicide bombing/acid throwing/honor killing or at least aren’t particularly opposed to it. same goes for the american south and lynchings in the jim crow era. but you won’t find a single american civilian or soldier supporting this killer’s actions. if you go to US military forums and blogs, they unanimously condemn him and are furious at the idea that prosecutors will likely attribute this to PTSD.

Im sorry but official forums tend to police themselves quite strongly. You give the example of Pakistani society, but on GS you wont find much condoning of suicide bombing or acid throwing or honor killing. I used to moderate the forums and I used to argue strongly against letting those views being put on the forum. Doesnt mean there arent forums where suicide bombing is supported (cant say I know of any forums where acid throwing/honor killing is). I can tell you now, I can find plenty of americanforumswhere the primary concern is the impact on the ‘mission’, or on getting angry that Obama dared to apologize, and I can find forums where the deaths are openly celebrated. Mostly rednecks and republicans admittedly, but then again thats a sizable portion of the american army (see hereand here)

Plenty of American politicians and commentators have criticized Obama for apologising to Afghans for an american soldier killing 16 people. Ive seen american commentary on the atrocities you mention that has either soft pedalled american crimes, or even supportedthem.

People do disassociate from crimes the motivation of which they share, but they feel the actions are counter-productive. Case in point people like Zaid Hamid who may be very anti-India, and may be responsible for someone committing terrorism in India after hearing their words, but will say this is bad for us or this is a conspiracy against Pakistan. Likewise there were neo-nazi forums that lamented Breivik’s actions because they felt the media would use this to go against them. This is what I see happening in American forums, theres plenty who feel that the main problem with the murders is that its an inconvenience/hazard for american soldiers/mission. The underlying demonization of Muslims that leads to these killings remains very much a part of their mental framework.