Not aware of any civilians in the area

In the court martial of an Army sniper – the case in which it came out that there’s something called an Asymmetrical Warfare Group that comes up with brilliant ideas like planting fuses and suchlike and then shooting anyone who picks them up – Staff Sgt Michael Hensley, a member of a sniper team called the Painted Demons, was acquitted on 3 counts of premeditated murder in Iraq but convicted of planting an AK-47 on the corpse of one of the people he shot. And of disrespecting a superior officer. He was sentenced to time served.

Today, US forces in Afghanistan killed 15 men they claimed were militants, plus a woman and two children. With a single grenade, I might add. Military spokesmodel Chris Belcher said, “When militants knowingly engage coalition forces with innocent people in the background, it only shows the extremists’ complete disregard for innocent lives.” Which might be a better excuse if the “engagement” was not, in fact, an American raid. Belcher continued, “on this operation we were not aware of any civilians in the area.” So that’s okay, then.

Tom Tancredo ad. Because some xenophobic dickhead needs to say it: