The conflicting Afghan shooting reports
As the U.S. stands by its lone gunman story, we talk to Kandahar villagers who tell a different tale
http://www.salon.com/2012/03/23/the_conflicting_afghan_shooting_reports/singleton/
I commented earlier (see “The echo chamber“), where I was looking at the larger issue of front-line troops being under huge pressure to treat locals as crap. In it I more or less assumed that the dewd did it and the ‘coverup’ was just the normal efforts to keep a US citizen from being impacted by local politics. However, I am starting to think that there might be more going on here. I have read accounts that he got something to drink from his peers that evening before the event happened; what if he was being set up to take the fall for a planned massacre and the drink had some sort of drug in it (like the so-called ‘date rape’ drug GHB). I had supposed that his claims to not remember were spurious or induced by the horror of having to acknowledge what he had done, but what if he really didn’t remember doing it because he really didn’t do it? From the military’s perspective they probably wouldn’t want to investigate that angle because that would require them to accept the possibility that a large number of trusted and likely well-placed individuals have worked together in a premeditated fashion to a) commit a heinous, murderous massacre and b) frame one of their own fellows for it. Accepting that reality might be more than the military can bear so I could easily see ignoring any such evidence being the path of least resistance.
Reading the article above makes it easy to dismiss the reports of more than one gunman. Since the vast majority of these are second-hand reports, they are trivially ignored, who knows what sort of statements were initially made and under what conditions, they could have meant anything. The few first-hand accounts could be viewed with equal suspicion as (though I am not sure of the timing of events) they might be referring to the later investigators rather than the initial shooter. Also, since the local population has grown to distrust the US military, they might be inclined to exaggerate their statements to their fellow locals just for effect. HOWEVER, since the reports of many military-styled individuals being present have presented themselves, and reports emerged almost immediately, it is incumbent on the military investigators to take this seriously and do an open and transparent investigation (there I go again, asking for the moon for a nickle). To me the risk that this might _not_ be an isolated incident of someone mentally breaking is too high to ignore, though what the military would do if they were forced to accept that as a reality I can’t even imagine.
