Murders of Afghan Civilians on March 11, 2012

An Afghan man crying over the death of these 9
children.  His pain is real. 

On March 11, 2012, an unnamed American Army Sergeant went on a rampage and killed 16 Afghan civilians in the middle of the night, in a remote part of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.

Included among the dead Afghans are 4 men, 3 women and 9 children. Others were wounded. 

The U.S. staff sergeant, who has not been named or charged, allegedly slipped out of his small base in southern Afghanistan before dawn, crept into three houses and shot men, women and children at close range and then burned some of the bodies. 

The killer was less than four months into his deployment. Alcohol may have been a factor in this incident. 

I asked myself "Do you want to publish a post about this incident?" And the answer is "Yes." War is hell, regardless of the cause of the war or the reason for participating in it. It stinks out loud. Everyone suffers.

It is because War is Hell that there are pacifism movements in this world. Of course, pacifism only works if everyone is involved in it, which will never happen in this lifetime. 

God the Father, who holds
us in his hands, give us peace.

It is mind-boggling that a sane man could creep out of his military base in the early morning hours and proceed to murder civilians, especially children sleeping in their beds, regardless of what his personal thoughts were about the enemy. 

Of course, this man is not sane. When he goes to trial he will be found insane and will be locked up in a medical facility. No one sane, murders sleeping children.

God help us. God save us from war and from the insanity of it all. God lead us into the new era. Amen