The Afghan photos: A sinking mission

The quagmire of Afghanistan into which the U.S. military steadily sinks got distinctly murkier this week after publication of horrid photos showing an allegedly self-designated American "kill team" posing with dead Afghan civilians.

And this, after the stinging lessons of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse photos in Iraq seven years ago. Although the German magazine Der Spiegel blurred the victims' faces, the soldiers' faces are clear.

Allegedly the soldiers faked combat situations to justify the killings in the Maiwand district of Kandahar Province, which until last fall was dominated by the Taliban, The New York Times reports. Five soldiers face court-martial hearings for the deaths of three Afghan civilians. Seven soldiers are charged with lesser crimes.

While the Army acted quickly to prosecute and insists all will be held fully accountable, the damage is done, stoking further the ongoing tensions over Afghan civilian deaths. This also fuels more U.S. hatred among suicide bombers and terrorist cells around the world, which don't need graphic images to attract recruits.

How is this going to impact both the challenge of training a capable Afghan security force and America's overextended stay in Afghanistan• This makes the U.S. "mission," such as it is, that much more difficult.