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Subscribe to RSSAn American staff sergeant is in custody after allegedly killing 16 civilians, including nine children, in a shooting spree in Afghanistan. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
Updated at 7:24 a.m. ET: A U.S. soldier's shooting of 16 Afghan civilians deepened questions on Monday about what the United States can accomplish in Afghanistan before it withdraws, as Washington rushed to contain the damage from the startling rogue attack.
President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke to Afghan President Hamid Karzai by telephone and offered condolences for the attack, in which a U.S. soldier left his base in southern Afghanistan and began a middle-of-the-night shooting spree that local officials said killed nine children, three women, and four men.
"This incident is tragic and shocking," Obama said in a statement.
Reports of the attack remain confused. U.S. officials say only one soldier was involved, while villagers and other Afghans said it was a group of soldiers. But the Obama administration vowed a rapid investigation and promised to hold whoever was behind the violence fully responsible.
Retired General Barry McCaffrey, an NBC News military analyst, talks to TODAY's Matt Lauer about what could have possibly driven a U.S. soldier to killed 16 civilians, including nine children, in Afghanistan.
The soldier suspected of being responsible has been detained but has yet to be identified. However, a senior U.S. defense official confirmed to NBC News that he is based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Tacoma, Wash.
LIVE Chat: Ask NBC's Afghanistan correspondent your questions about the attack 12:00-12:30p.m.ET
While U.S. officials rushed to draw a line between the shooting and the ongoing efforts of a U.S. force of around 90,000, the incident is sure to infuriate Afghans already suspicious of a Western military presence now over a decade old. The incident may provide ammunition to those in Washington advocating for an accelerated exit from a long, costly and inconclusive war.
'American savages'
NBC News reported that there were no signs of demonstrations early Monday.
In a statement Monday, the Afghan Taliban pledged to "take revenge" against the "sick-minded American savages," according to the AFP news agency.
"The American 'terrorists' want to come up with an excuse for the perpetrator of this inhumane crime by claiming that this immoral culprit was mentally ill," the Taliban statement added. "If the perpetrators of this massacre were in fact mentally ill then this testifies to yet another moral transgression by the American military, because they are arming lunatics in Afghanistan who turn their weapons against the defenseless Afghans without giving a second thought."
Last month, the burning of copies of the Quran on a NATO military base triggered violent protests across the country and a spate of insider attacks against Western soldiers.
Afghan suspect's base has recent history of controversies
$500 billion war bill
Sunday's attack may harden a growing consensus in Washington that, despite a troop surge, a war bill exceeding $500 billion and nearly 2,000 U.S. lives lost, prospects are dimming for what the United States can accomplish in Afghanistan before it pulls most troops out by the end of 2014.
Obama's surge of 33,000 troops has beaten the Taliban back from some areas of Afghanistan's south, but serious doubts remain about whether an inexperienced local military and wobbly central government can keep a resilient insurgency at bay.
Pete Souza / White House via Reuters
President Barack Obama talks on a phone with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai from his vehicle in Chevy Chase, Md., on Sunday.
"These killings only serve to reinforce the mindset that the whole war is broken and that there's little we can do about it beyond trying to cut our losses and leave," said Joshua Foust, a security expert with the American Security Project.
Afghans haven’t traditionally responded with violence or widespread protests to civilian deaths, the Christian Science Monitor reported, as many view such behavior as a byproduct of war.
Report: Suspect is Iraq veteran, married father of two children
But, Abdul Rahim Ayobi, a member of Parliament from Kandahar told the Monitor, “it gives us the message that the American soldiers are not under the control of their generals and these American generals have failed to manage them.”
If the incident triggers retaliatory violence against Western troops, it may well help shape ongoing deliberations within the Obama administration about how quickly U.S. soldiers should be withdrawn, possibly strengthening the case of those surrounding the president who back a more decisive drawdown.
Obama and other NATO leaders are expected to define their plans for gradually trimming Western forces and putting Afghan troops in charge of security when they meet at a NATO summit in Chicago in May.
'The house of cards is falling'
Most Western combat troops are expected to be gone by the end of 2014, but some U.S. soldiers could remain beyond then, likely focusing on targeted strikes on militants and supporting local forces, who will need outside help for years to come.
"This is terrible timing for people who either want to stay through 2014 or even extend the U.S. presence there," Foust said. "Though the overall number of (similar) incidents remains pretty low, there is a broad and growing perception that now both sides are dysfunctional and committing murder, or the house of cards is falling."
In a post on Twitter, Pentagon spokesman George Little said the incident would not change the U.S. mission. "The recent tragedy in Afghanistan will not deter us from pursuing our fundamental strategy. We've come too far with our Afghan partners."
Sunday's shooting may dispel the goodwill created by an agreement reached on Friday on control over military prisons in Afghanistan, which had been one of the remaining stumbling blocks to reaching a deal governing future U.S.-Afghan ties.
MSNBC military analyst Gen. Barry McCaffrey (Ret.) says the alleged shooting of Afghan civilians by a US soldier is a 'further unraveling' of relations between the US and Afghanistan.
Andrew Exum, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and former Army Ranger, said the shootings come at a sensitive time in negotiations on that deal, which the White House wanted to unveil by the May summit.
"One wonders whether or not internal political pressures in Afghanistan will constrain the options of Afghan negotiators on subjects ranging from U.S. basing rights to night raids," Exum said.
Some U.S. officials told the New York Times that the Taliban hard-liners could be emboldened by the incidents. “The fear,” one U.S. official told the Times, “ is that all these incidents, taken together, play into the Taliban’s account of how we treat the Afghan religion and people.”
Election impact?
The shootings may complicate things for Obama ahead of November's presidential election.
While jobs and the economy will likely remain the focus of the presidential race, the White House has hoped to point to a series of foreign policy successes, such as the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, to shore up Obama's support.
The recent tumult in Afghanistan may increase the pressure Obama faces in coming months from fellow Democrats who favor a more rapid drawdown.
Family loses 2 sons in Afghanistan
While many Republicans have warned against pulling out too quickly, conservative presidential candidate Newt Gingrich voiced a very different view.
"There's something profoundly wrong with the way we're approaching the whole region and I think it's going to get substantially worse, not better. And I think that we're risking the lives of young men and women in a mission that may frankly not be doable," Gingrich said on "Fox News Sunday."
He said Washington should consider pulling out of Afghanistan and reconsider its role in the entire region.
Qais Usyan / AFP - Getty Images
More than a decade after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
"I understand the anger and the sorrow," said John McCain, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who like many other Republicans has warned a hasty withdrawal will undermine U.S. security in the long run.
"I also understand that we should not forget that the attacks on the United States of America on 9/11 originated in Afghanistan, and if Afghanistan dissolved into a situation where the Taliban were able to take over, or a chaotic situation, it could easily return to an al-Qaida base for attacks," he said on "Fox News Sunday."
UK mourns four 20-year-olds killed in Afghan attack
Further complicating the matter is the limited patience many of Obama's top supporters have for Karzai, who has demanded an explanation for Sunday's shootings, which he called "intentional murders."
"The great weakness in Afghanistan is Karzai," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "Nobody seems to trust him or like him. And the idea of turning it over to the Afghan forces is the right way to go, but that's a major question mark: Karzai."
In the meantime, U.S. officials in Washington and on the ground appeared to be bracing themselves for a backlash.
The U.S. Embassy, on its Twitter feed, said the movement of U.S. personnel in southern Afghanistan would be restricted and warned that "anti-American feelings and protests" may be ahead.
Michael O'Hanlon, a military expert at the Brookings Institution, said the quick, conciliatory statements from senior American officials were wise, but added that it might not be possible to staunch Afghan fury that may be unleashed by the killings.
"I don't know that a lot can be done," he said.
NBC News, msnbc.com staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Leave a Comment:
As Condi was fond of saying let's keep things in perspective. WAY more people die every year from ( fill in the blank) in the US than did in Iraq
Old age .... ??
Come home and defend the Flipen USA. Quit all this new world order krap. Quit squandering our treasurery and our son's and daughters. Enough! I went through this chit forty years ago. Not again. Obama is acting like Johnson.
Nine children are dead ... and NO ONE on here can do anything but argue ideologies ... we have become a nation of hollow people.
Did you not know killing women is a sport in some countries?
You call your friends and ask them to bring their Axes, get the wife out of chanes and then chop away...
It is very popular, I here it happened more then 5000 time a year in Afghanistan.
Very sad that people are like this, The GI could not do anything, Obama has the hands tied with laws.
Not a nation. The internet does not reflect the United States in general.
The incredible brutality that will ensue against the Afgan people by the Taliban will pale what this single soldier with a blown fuse has done. Bad as it is war is nasty business and I only see things going from worse to worse once we leave. But.. Leave we MUST!
No external Power has ever been able to impose their will on the area of Afghanistan. All the Great Powers have tried all through history; All have returned home defeated or have just given up and left. That country will forever be in internal turmoil but any external interferance will be useless because their culture is too different for an expeditionary force to comprehend, let alone to change.
"Into the Valley Of Death rode the 600..."
Where are the protesting Bush bashers?
This is 100% Obama's war.
Alright ....
Bush did it ....
Bush did it ....
How was that .... ??
Greg,
I've been looking for Cindy Sheehan for 3 1/2 years.
Instead we found this law student putz, Sandra Fluke!!
Hasn't Obama apligized enough for this century. Did anyone apologize for the killings of US troops because of some stupid book burning. Hopefully he killed future Al Queda cowards. Lets get the hell out and nuke the whole country. They don't care about our innocent people, so why should we care about them.
An innocent person, is an innocent person.. ours.. theirs.. what's the difference? You want to nuke them all huh? it's funny hearing people talk like this.. and half of you call them savages... talk about the pot calling the kettle black...
War is hell, these young people are in a pressure cooker, why are we there? We can't police every dysfunctional country in the world. Pull the troops, beef up the special forces and the drones. Modern warfare does not work against terrorists.
Looking good Robert ....
And yes , time to pack up and bring everyone home ....
Let China and Russia tend to their neighbors ....
On their dime also ....
Thanks Ben, Russia or China, probably China, will get access to the resources, let them pay to protect them.
Sadly China never helps anyone but themselves .... Robert ....
Good point, but sooner or later they will they will have to leave the kids table and eat with the adults.
Our boys and girls are war weary..burned out....bring them Home..Nothing there to fight for and we are not wanted. The war will soon come to us and we need to rest our warriors before our enemies decide we are weak if they haven't figured it out already. Regroup!!!!
While we're at it, with the "new" way of war, why don't we throw in an apology to the innocent citizens of Dresden, and some Georgians (for the march to the sea), and the Royal Crown for being just too rude during our Revolution.
The reason that Al Qaida was able to decimate the sense of security in the U. S. on 9/11 was because of Bush incompetence in running law enforcement and Chenny's fooling with the CIA. These two idiots couldn't run a daycare. Everybody was trying to tell them that something was about to happen but they were too busy congratulating themselves on winning to listen. Afganistan is never going to be a threat to the U. S. They arn't much past rattling bones over there today. All they are going to do is be a pain in the ass for their neighbors. The Taliban only has one gear and that is reverse. They arn't going to develop any weapons, or make any money to buy weapons, assuming that they do regain power. They are just going to steal each other's horses and women. What the U. S. is loosing by leaving is the pipeline out of Terkmenistan. That is the only reason we are still there. Four trillion in oil is why we are fighting still in Afganistan. The oil companies don't want to deal with backwards witchdoctors for the oil and pipeline so we are trying to install a dictator, (Karsi). Trouble is he is almost as bad as the Taliban witchdoctors.
C Mooker,
Bush and our intelligence were unable to connect the dots because of the laws that prevented the CIA, the FBI and local police departments from communicating with each other......laws initiated by dems.
Now, the putz Eric Holder is telling The NYPD virtually the same thing!!
Well folks, I think we are at the cross roads of getting the hell out of Afghanistan and leaving behind one lost country. They live in the stone age and another American Life is not worth the trouble. Get out Now, why wait nothing is going to change except more money down the drain and into Karzai pockets. 11 years is enough. GET OUT NOW!!! That soldier that killed those people need help back here in the US. He sacrifice enough for his country!!! Bring him home to his family and lets get out of that ass back country now.
I really like the idea of bring that GI home, why let that hoared people torture him.
That's right Steve: Just another war we were dwelling in to long like that drug infested Nam. We did Knock down some numbers of bad guys but now it's time to get out save some money and move on. Good time Charley tried helping that country and they turned against us with weapons he lets behind. Think we would learn a better way and save American lives after all the lives we have spent trying to help someone else that ends up not caring in a country we don't don't who is going to lead it from one year to the next.
Fox News reports Israeli connection with 9/11. Fox News then deleted this show from its archives. This is the show that has been so difficult to find, the infamous Fox News Israel/911 Connection.
Banned foxnews video:
Y O U T U B E dot com/watch?v=LJyCAZGRpf8
This is sensitive information. Beware the implications.
LET'S SEE A SHOW OF HANDS....
How many people remember that for years that the dems told us the Afghan was was the "good" war?
Now, 3 1/2 years later they're still blaming Bush!!
I thought Bush has been gone for three years now ....
I guess someone doesn't want any blame for things gone wrong on his watch ....
big,
Make that 3 years and two months!
I think everyone still loves Bush .... bernie ....
Can't seem to get him out of their minds ....
We've killed enough bad guys to slow up the American hate groups around 3 country areas now. We have a lot of them that still hate us, so lets pull out and let them at each other now. Lets save some money and use it here in America. How many billion/trillion lost in Iraq? How much spent everyday in Afghanistan that has people who could care less about Americans and burn our Flag? An Afghan President that doesn't know how to say thank you, let alone his people for the money and American lives lost trying to save lives that thier own kind blow up with roadside and suicide explosive killing Afghan men, woman and children along with American soldiers. What about that? So know the Afghan President has maybe one US Soldier he wants to report world wide. How about he thanks us for all the expense above, keep his mouth shut along with the news and let the military handle it like the old days?
that soldier will get a fake trail.will be find not guilty for reason of insanity.and will be call a hero.
This war will end badly. Afghanistan is the "graveyard of empires." Revelation 18:3- For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings and leaders of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 4- And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 5- For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
Here you go jimbo. This guy, you and Santorum have a common thread in your BS. lol
"The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests.
It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality.
Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit.
We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press -- in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of LIBERAL excess during the past years."
-- Adolf Hitler
People say "get out" od Afghanistan but I do not think these people are taking into account the result of this decision. When Bin Laden saw the result of what Clinton did by withdrawing in Mogadishu it emboldened him to plan 9/11 where thousands of completely innocent people were killed in NYC and Wash. We then took the fight "to them" and there hasn't been one terrorist attack in this country. We got out of Iraq; now Afghanistan? You do not think these people will plan and DO more terrorist attacks in this country? Were you not awake on Sept. 11, 2001? These Islamic terrorists that are our sworn enemies want us dead. They will stop at nothing until America is "defeated" and the world under Islamic rule. Can't people see that? By up and leaving the Middle East will do nothing but enblazen them to do the same thing as Bin Laden did. Then what? We do nothing? We will be left with no course but to go BACK. Is that what you want? We are there...should stay there...and destroy as many of these terrorists as we can. But more importantly show the world we will NEVER give up this fight If we withdraw they will come. They believe it's "their" god's divine plan. We destroyed Germany to the last soldier and there was peace. We "appeased" Korea and we're still paying for it 50 years later. Peace can't be achieved at no cost...Peace can only be achieved at a very high cost. Our enemies showed what they are capable of on 9/11. That will be nothing compared to the damage they will do with MULTIPLE attacks on 4 or 5 major cities in this country. They stopped 10 years ago because we WENT ot war; not withdrawing. Just remember, once we withdraw from that part of the world....once the next attack happens...what do we do???
Ok, I'm tired of hearing Obama apologizing for everything to the ragheads. Didn't hear Karsai say sorry for the GIs killed over their stupid book. For every GI killed, maybe we should eliminate ten of them.
They only want U.S. dollars ....
And lots of them ....
Billions of them ....
They have already received about 20 billion ....
I guess that's not quite enough for them yet ....
Our soldiers are not under the control of our Generals? What a dip@!$%# comment. What about the ragheads from that ragtag so called army that turn on our soldiers and kill them? Are they under the control of the Afgan Generals? Shoot Karzai right through the stupid hat he wears and then bomb the crap out of every thing we have built there and then bomb the country just for the giggles and grins. The only good camel jockey is a dead one.
I am liberal and it doesnt extend to wars, but is held out to the people of this country. Demonize those that would sacrifice the people at home and their children for their greed and hunger for power and control
all i ever wanted was to be inducted into the cia and kill the idiots that act out the republican's dreams of anialation of those that have moral concerns for all of our citizens.
Oh look we are apologizing again! I think the solder that did this should be given a medal of honor! Time for some pay back! How many innocent people women and children we killed on 9-11? Payback is a bitch!
You mean 9/11 when we all marveled at how incredibly evil a person would have to be to EVER think that it was acceptable to kill innocent children to take revenge on another group? That 9/11?
Are you aware of the fact that this soldier killed a TWO YEAR-OLD? That means that he killed a person who wasn't born until nearly a decade after the twin towers were attacked. Tell me, Thomas-- do you think that people who kill two year-olds deserve a pat on the back and a medal on the chest? You make me sick.
Yes! WAR is hell! Suck it up! They should all be shoot! 16 less to come for us later on!
ThomasErickson; You're an idiot.
In a war soldiers are supposed to fight the enemy. The declared enemy is not the Afghan people, and certainly not a two year-old. The declared enemy is the Taliban and Al-Queda. Our ally in this fight is the Karzai government and the Afghan Army. You seem to believe, for some deranged reason, that our enemy is everyone in Afghanistan. This is not true. When a soldier shoots the people that we are supposed to be protecting in the first place, he hasn't done anything that is either honorable or that furthers the military's stated goals.
And while war may be hell, there are indeed laws that deal with soldiers' conduct. It is not permissible to leave one's base against orders and kill sleeping children. Is that so hard for you to understand?
I sorely wish that this ridiculous entanglement would end. We have no business there any longer, which just makes it seem like more of a business than anything else. Ron Paul is right. We have to end this policing of the world, close our bases in some 130 countries and bring our troops home. Why we are still in Korea, in Japan and now in Australia and all over the globe is bankrupting the country. All that money being borrowed to keep up and empire that is crumbling here at home. When are our leaders going to realize that. Now Iran and that whole god damn mess. Will it ever end.
Time for real change ....
Yeah so make sure y'all vote in a repub so we can burn our military up on Iran and Syria instead of Iraq and Afghanistan. roflmao
Russia tried for 10 years to bring order to Afghanistan, now the U.S. tried for 10 years, Afghanistan is a pointless cause.
But aren't Brown&Root and GE et.al making great profits. Hey, what's the blood of our military as long as the stockholders, CEOs and board of directors are making a bundle? Should have been out over 6 years ago.
It's all Obama's fault.