U.S. soldier goes on shooting spree in Aghanistan, killing 16 including 9 children

Multiple deployments, brain injury, marriage falling apart, etc., etc., WTF you expect? More to come there AND here at home. Walk a mile...before you judge.


The Army staff sergeant who allegedly went on a rampage and killed 16 Afghans as they slept in their homes had a traumatic brain injury at one point and had problems at home after his last deployment, officials told ABC News.

But the soldier, who is based at Fort Lewis in Washington, was considered fit for combat duty and deployed to Afghanistan in December, officials said.

Details about the staff sergeant, who has not been identified, emerged as the Taliban vowed revenge against "sick-minded American savages" after the mass killing.

What has trickled about the suspect is that he was 38, on his fourth combat deployment in 10 years, the first three in Iraq. He was on his first tour in Afghanistan, where he'd been since December.

When the massacre took place he was assigned to Camp Belambay, a remote combat outpost where his job was to be protection for Special Operations Forces who were creating local militias. He was not a member of the special forces unit.

An official told ABC News that the soldier has suffered a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the past, either from hitting his head on the hatch of a vehicle or in a car accident. He went through the advanced TBI treatment at Fort Lewis and was deemed to be fine.

He also underwent mental health screening necessary to become a sniper and passed in 2008. He had routine behavioral health screening after that and was cleared, the official said.

When the soldier returned from his last deployment in Iraq he had difficulty reintegrating, including marital problems, the source told ABC News, . But officials concluded that he had worked through those issues before deploying to Afghanistan.

 

No Flaming... Just an observation:

On 9/11 a group of predominantly Saudi Nationals slaughtered Americans.
We declared an ambiguous war on terror and have largely targeted brown skin muslims.

Our military has engaged in combat in sovereign countries and have murdered many civilians under the guise of collateral damage and self defense.

What exactly is the difference between our targeting of brown skin muslims as terrorists and their targeting of American's and our Military personnel as infidel's?

Seems like we are all victims and villains and this madness is only going to escalate.

 

+1

 

Take your pointy-headed phony equivalence between us and islamofascists and stick it. Someone attacks us, we'll go after them. War's a blunt instrument and there will always be collateral damage. Too fucking bad.

 

TraderDude mellow out...

Afghan mission reality was to stop the chinese and have Karzi break their mining contracts and award natural resource development contracts to US companies.

Our military will always be there to protect our economic interests. The military spending thus far is fractions of a percent of the profits to me made plundering their resources and controlling their economic prospects.

Alexander Benard’s call for an enduring U.S. military presence in Afghanistan is well-timed:

" Central Asia is a hugely significant region for the United States. It sits at the crossroads of important rivals and rising powers, like China, Russia, and India, and next to threats like Pakistan and Iran. The region also boasts significant oil and gas reserves, as well as large quantities of lithium, copper, rare earth minerals, gold, and many other natural resources that are critical drivers to global commerce.

Yet most of Central Asia has very little US presence. Few US companies operate in the region, largely because the Russian and Chinese governments successfully use threats – both explicit and implicit – to prevent Central Asian republics from opening their doors to Western firms.

In the Middle East, the US has troops and security relationships with a variety of countries (Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, among others) and can thus absorb the Iraq pullout without sustaining too much of a strategic blow to our regional interests. In Central Asia, however, America’s footprint is very light. It no longer has an air base in Uzbekistan and has only a few hundred troops at an air base Kyrgyzstan.

That leaves Afghanistan as America’s only beachhead – and a willing participant at that – altering the power dynamics in the region. The US certainly derives valuable intelligence and counter-terrorism benefits from having troops stationed in a country that borders Iran, Pakistan, and China. Even more important, however, a US presence in Afghanistan signals that the US is serious about Central Asia and that it will be a player there for the foreseeable future.

Having an American presence in Afghanistan breaks the China-Russia duopoly by providing an alternative power broker for the region. It thereby emboldens other countries in the area, giving them the confidence they need to stand up to their neighborhood bullies. An ongoing presence of around 20,000 to 30,000 US troops – similar in size to the number of troops in South Korea or in Japan – would be sufficient to accomplish these goals.
"

 

This guy got a brain injury during his 3rd deployment to Iraq. There are going to be alot of questions about how he was cleared for continued duty. There is some question of whether he had been drinking as well.

I've been worried for a long time about how many deployments that our soldiers have been sent on over the years. I think it is unusual historically. In Vietnam after 2 tours you had to really fight to get another. There was a recognition that so much time in a combat zone was bad and could cause alot of psychological problems in the long term. Tours were shorter than they are now and after a couple of tough tours soldiers usually were allowed some choice on subsequent assignments.

Now these people seem to do 4 or 5 back-to-back combat tours with little or no evaluation of their mental state unless they were injured. This guy killed 16 people and most were women and children sleeping in their beds.

I don't think he should be turned over to the Afghans. He should be sent back to a military prison-hospital and evaluated to see if he is insane. If he is insane he should not face execution. If he is found to be sane he should be excecuted under military law in the United States or held for life at Ft. Leavenworth where they still have "hard labor".

The Afghans may be outraged but their own soldiers murdered American soldiers and diplomats over the last few weeks over the accidental burning of copies of the Quran that had already been defaced by Taliban prisoners who wrote messages to one another in them.

 

Excuses, excuses, who ain't got marital problems. The soldier went on a "personal" mission of annihilation and should be dealt with accordingly. Fry his carcass in the electric chair, firing squad, hanging. We don't want him on the street.

 

You need to add a few layers to your tinfoil hat.

 

You left out the TBI, dumbass. Maybe "people" as stupid and ignorant as you shouldn't be on the street either.

 

He won't be.