Just gets worse

Afghanistan the anvil round the ankles of empire:

Stalking from home to home, a United States Army sergeant methodically killed at least 16 civilians, 9 of them children, in a rural stretch of southern Aghanistan early Sunday, igniting fears of a new wave of anti-American hostility, Afghan and American officials said. Residents of three villages in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province described a terrifying string of attacks in which the soldier, who had walked more than a mile from his base, tried door after door, eventually breaking in to kill within three separate houses. At the first, the man gathered 11 bodies, including those of four girls younger than 6, and set fire to them, villagers said.

"igniting fears of a new wave of anti-American hostility?"

Golly, ya' think?

Can you blame them?

We're not exactly a society capable of distinguishing individual acts from broad-based assumptions ourselves. And how many individual acts of violence have we perpetuated against Afghans, whether in acts "WE" consider justified or not?

Another senior military official said the sergeant was 38 and married with two children. He had served three tours of duty in Iraq, this official said, and had been deployed to Afghanistan for the first time in December. Yet another military official said he has served in the Army for 11 years.

He may, or may not have acted alone.  But I'm sure this account shows that bombing and deploying (repeatedly) in other countries is a great idea.