Irish army personnel should quit Afghanistan

The appalling killing of at least 16 Afghan civilians, including 9 children, by a 38-year-old US Army Staff Sergeant in Panjwai, Kandahar, Afghanistan, will have inevitable repercussions.

US military spokespersons described the perpetrator as deranged, but arguably, this whole war waged by the US and Nato against Afghanistan was deranged and inappropriate from the beginning.

Violent conflicts such as this do have the effect of destroying the lives of the victims, but also of deranging the minds some of the perpetrating soldiers.