The bad news coming out of Afghanistan is truly shocking. Late last week six British soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb. This almost pales into insignificance with the news that a “rogue” American soldier killed sixteen Afghan civilians including several children.

As an Irish person, I am of course neutral. I find Islamist extremists repulsive…their treatment of women, girls, Christians, homosexuals and other groups is simply barbaric. But I find the quasi-imperialism of the American and British led war against Terror (a risible concept anyway) to be hypocrisy of the highest order.

Effectively Afghanistan is a country that only exists in name. The writ of the corrupt and generously bankrolled Karzai Government does not run beyond some tribal areas where palms have been generously greased. Rather Afghanistan is a relic from the middle ages and the people especially in some areas close to Pakistan have more in common with their Pashtun/Pathan kin across the non existent border. The “War” against the Taliban is actually a proxy war against pan-Pashtun-Pathan tribalism. Legally it can be fought on the Afghan side of the border (Afghanistan is a failed state) but it cannot be fought in Pakistan because Pakistan is a large and established nation which just happens to have nuclear weapons.

The fiction is that Pakistan is an ally in the War against “Terror”. In fact Pakistan is a barely functional coalition of ethnic groups including the Pashtun-Pathans and other factions such as the (elected) government, the military and religious zealots. As seen in the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the Pakistanis are unreliable allies of the West. And the West are extremely unreliable allies of Pakistan.

The tragedy after 9/11 was to go into a war with Iraq…..a brutal and nasty regime which at least had a secular government…….in alliance with Saudi Arabia also a nasty and brutal regime ruled by religious fanatics. There is far too much Irony. The Saudi terrorists on 9/11 were trained in the Pashtun-Pathan areas of Afghanistan but got flying lessons in the United States. And the British bombers on 7/7 in London went to religious schools in Pakistan, having been recruited in…Britain.

The high-minded rhetoric which told us all that going to war in Afghanistan was all about ensuring that little girls got an education or that women were not stoned to death, Christians imprisoned and homosexuals hanged…….was always nonsense.

A Hearts and Mind Campaign? Have we heard this before? Did General Westmoreland not say this at press conferences in Vietnam? That worked out well!. Did Brigadier Farrar-Hockley not say the same at press conferences in Belfast? That also worked out well!!

In fairness politicians probably mean it when they talk about Hearts and Minds. The Generals know that it is double-speak and bullshit. And the soldiers take their cue accordingly. War is War. It is brutal and brutalising. And there are excesses. And there is a nod and a wink that suggests that it is ok to engage in excess. Just dont get caught. And if a nod and wink is not appropriate….well a blind eye will be turned. Or as General Hollingsworth put it better…..”Grab them by their balls and their hearts and minds will follow”. This must be a quote known to every soldier “on the ground”. The downside is of course that sometimes real soldiers are actually charged with crimes. Some perhaps are scape-goated. It happened in Vietnam. It happened in Norn Iron. It is happening in Afghanistan. But soldiers DO get away with murder.

Thus the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam is regarded by Americans as unique. Only Lt William Calley served a prison sentence. But not actually in prison. House arrest in a military camp for three years was hardly appropriate. Even less appropriate was the failure to prosecute anyone from the British Paratroop regiment for the Bloody Sunday Massacre in Derry in 1972.

The Military will argue that soldiers are under unique pressure and deserve overwhelming benefit of doubt. From my perspective soldiers have a unique responsibility.

As indeed do politicians. Troops pull out of Afghanistan in 2014. As certainly as they pulled out of Vietnam. Or off Belfast streets. And as certainly the Taliban will inherit Afganistan. It is that obvious. So why stay there? Well last week I heard someone say that the British and Americans “owe it to the fallen heroes” to fight on until 2014………..which is of course bullshit. Much better to avoid more deaths when the result of the conflict is already known.

As I compose this, it is stated that the most recent outrage was committed by a single murderer. A staff sergeant. But there is a pattern emerging where “isolated incidents” are no such thing. The “Kill Team” which murdered Afghans at random. The You Tube footage of soldiers urinating on dead Taliban……a centuries old military tradition before You Tube.. The accidental or callous burning of the Qoran.

Right wing pundits in the United States will rally round the killer of Afghan women and children. He was “traumatised”. Brutalised by War, we can expect to see photographs of a loving father at a little league baseball game. Loving parents in Iowa or Nebraska will talk of the son who only wanted to serve his country. Bill O’Reilly, Shaun Hannity and Glenn Beck will talk about the need for respect for veterans. The killer will have the best available legal team. He will be defended vigourosly on patriotic websites.

And indeed everyone has a right to mount a vigourous defence and if mental health is an issue, then I hope that avenue is fully explored.

But my gut feeling is that the fate of convicted American terrorist Timothy McVeigh does not await this American. More likely the fate is that of Lt William Calley…..house arrest and a Presidential decree that “time is served”.