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Subscribe to RSSU.S. Army officials are preparing charges as new information is revealed about U.S. staff sergeant who allegedly shot 16 Afghan civilians. NBC Chief Pentagon Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski reports.
The American soldier accused of massacring 16 civilians in southern Afghanistan on Sunday was a 38-year-old staff sergeant based in Washington State who had no history of behavioral problems, but had been treated for traumatic brain injury after a previous deployment to Iraq, senior U.S. defense officials told NBC News.
The soldier, reportedly married with two children, enlisted in the Army soon after the terror attacks of Sept. 11 and did three combat tours to Iraq before arriving in Kandahar in December 2011.
The soldier was from the 2nd Battallion, 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Stryker brigade, 2nd Infrantry Division based out of Joint Base Lewis McChord located south of Seattle. He was among 2,500 soldiers sent to Afghanistan for a yearlong deployment.
He received his assignment to a village stabilization program less than six weeks ago, the defense officials said.
The attacker left his base in Panjwai district early on Sunday and broke into the homes of local villagers, according to reports. Nine children and three women were among the 16 slain. Some of the bodies were also reportedly set on fire. The BBC reported that the soldier was thought to have suffered a breakdown.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai called it an "assassination" and furiously demanded an explanation from Washington.
"This is an assassination, an intentional killing of innocent civilians and cannot be forgiven," Karzai said in a statement. He said he has repeatedly demanded the U.S. stop killing Afghan civilians.
President Barack Obama called the attack "tragic and shocking" and offered his condolences to the families of those killed. In a statement released by the White House, he vowed "to get the facts as quickly as possible and to hold accountable anyone responsible."
U.S. and NATO officials were anxious to make clear that the shooter was acting alone.
"This was not part of a night raid or any operation," the senior officer told The New York Times. "All the signs point to a lone person acting alone."
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.
Nevertheless, some residents said they believed there were multiple attackers, given the carnage.
"One man can't kill so many people. There must have been many people involved," Bacha Agha of Balandi village told the AP. "If the government says this is just one person's act we will not accept it."
Taliban vows 'revenge' after US soldier kills 16 civilans in Afghanistan
The staff sergeant accused of killing the Afghan civilians was treated for traumatic brain injury in 2010 after his vehicle rolled over in an accident that was not caused by an IED explosion, according to a senior U.S. defense official. He was medicated for some time, the official said.
The soldier was given a clean bill of health and received both pre- and post-deployment health assessments which did not indicate any problems, according to the defense official.
Officials said it was premature to state whether there was any link between the 2010 injury and the Afghanistan incident.
Home to about 100,000 military and civilian personnel, Joint Base Lewis McChord has suffered a spate of suicides among soldiers back from war. The Army is investigating whether doctors at Lewis-McChord's Madigan Army Medical Center were urged to consider the cost of providing benefits when reviewing diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Military discipline and the 'command climate' in Afghanistan comes into question after a U.S. soldier allegedly opened fire on sleeping civilians in Kandahar province. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
In 2010, a dozen soldiers from the base were arrested on a slew of charges that ranged from using drugs, beating up a whistleblower in their unit, and deliberately killing three Afghan civilians during patrols in Kandahar Province. Prosecutors at Lewis-McChord won convictions against four of the five who were charged in the killings.
Suspect's base has history of controversies
While U.S. officials rushed to draw a line between the shooting over the weekend and 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.
Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News chief Pentagon correspondent, said the recent incidents involving U.S. servicemen in Afghanistan raised questions about what the military calls the "command climate."
"Are the leaders there becoming a little slack perhaps in their discipline or enforcement of the rules?" he said on MSNBC. "U.S. military officials insist that this is not the case, but ... has the discipline eroded as forces prepare to withdraw?"
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.
US gives up control of jail where Quran was burned
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."
"This is a fatal hammer blow on the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan. Whatever sliver of trust and credibility we might have had following the burnings of the Quran is now gone," said David Cortright, the director of policy studies at Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and an advocate for a quick withdrawal from Afghanistan.
"This may have been the act of a lone, deranged soldier. But the people of Afghanistan will see it for what it was, a wanton massacre of innocent civilians," Cortright said.
The soldier's name has not been released. He is now in pretrial confinement as Army officials review his complete deployment and medical history.
The village stability operations are part of NATO's efforts to transition out of Afghanistan. They pair special operations troops with local villagers chosen by village elders to become essentially a sanctioned, armed neighborhood watch.
NBC's Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube, msnbc.com staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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I guess some people were to young or are to senile to remember why we are in Afghanistan.
This country was invaded. We lost thousands of Americans, including children.
We MUST stomp on these people. osama could not have done this alone. These people MUST KNOW, we won't allow them to attack us again.
The Sargent will be punished, as well he should, but this is NOT a reason to let these other killers off.
have no fear for atomic energey it cant turn back the hands of time it has to full fill the prophecy the us will continue on its ways of war cause thats a kind of minde set thing being feed to the masess starting from the pentagone and its supporters that has they financeial gains from it next in our cross hairs is Iran all this can only be stop by the hands of the allmighty///the saying is that america is not suppose to be apologetec to any one for its worng doings cause for us might is right how agrogrant can we be remember the world is watching us even the brits and the canadians ,so at the end of it all we must ourselfs, what kind of example are we setting
PERHAPS --This All boils down to the Difference between a Police Force and an Occupying Army?
We should send The Three Stooges there to figure it out:
Bush JR.
Chaney
Congo Rice
What is surprising to me is that this hasn't happenned before,these guys can break,and many tours can break a man,constantly sending the same people into harms way,someone was bound to crack and until an investigation is completed,who knows what drove him off the cliff
please fix your validation process
Report: US soldier who massacred 16 Afghans is a married father of two: Before you judge this Soldier......Drag.....drag....drag....( stepping up on soapbox, clearing throat....) HELLO AMERICA!!!!!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND YET WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR MEN AND WOMEN OVER THERE????? THEY ARE FIGHTING A NEVER ENDING, WORTHLESS HOLY WAR THAT WE NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!! OUR TROOPS WERE PUT THERE BUY AN ASS WHO DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HE WAS DOING AND WAS TOLD TO FINISH THE JOB THAT HIS DADDY DIDN'T GET DONE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME AROUND AND AT THE EXPENSE OF OUR SOLDIERS FAMILIES LIVES AND SOULS. WE NEED NOT TO WAIT UNTIL 2014 TO PULL THEM OUR OR THERE WILL BE MORE OF THIS HAPPENING. BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW. THESE SOLDIERS ARE NOT PLASTICS, PAPER OR METAL THAT YOU CAN RECYCLE OVER AND OVER!!!!!!! ( stepping down off of soapbox....pissed ass hell!!!!!) I am the wife of a now medically retired Army Soldier that suffers from SEVERE PTSD and he has to live his days on 15 meds just to make it. So I don't want to hear any bull@!$%# from anyone that they know different. You live day to day with this and you try sleep next to them and get the @!$%# beat out of you because they think they are getting attacked and lets just see how you feel about all of this. God Bless this man and his family. I am sorry for the lives and souls that were lost but it is not his fault. You sit and put the blame where the blame belongs. It's on their own homeland and the SONS OF BITCHES THAT Started this @!$%#ing WAR!!!!!!!! Past and Present!!!
Sounds like your complaining about Iraq. This is Afghanistan.
Jen - I'm a former combat vet (now a Navy Reserve Captain) and have been diagnosed with "mild" PTSD (nightmares/flashbacks/sweating at night). I can only imagine the suffering someone goes through with severe PTSD from combat related trauma. My heart goes out to your husband. Just know there ARE people who DO understand.
booby....Irrelevant. Combat trauma is combat trauma regardless of the place and time.
@Jen: Please know you are in our hearts & prayers as a military wife & so is your husband. Please let him know this lady does appreciate his service to our country... even if it was misled into invading Iraq. I believe whatever military goals that were set in place a decade ago have been met & it is time to shut down operations in Afghanistan and bring all our troops home. Then it is up to the rest of us citizens to help them heal.
OilmanMD
Far from irrelevant to her post. Reread it if you have to. Afghanistan isn't about someone trying to finish their "daddy's job"
I don't think modern warfare has anything to do with "combat" trauma either. Our soldiers are sitting ducks plain and simple. That is more damaging. We send them to a foreign country to fight a war and tie their hands behind their backs.
Unfortunately, many people are not going to get it until soldiers return and begin picking off their loved ones. They somehow think that young men that have done several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan are going to return home and blend nicely into society. I'm an Army Veteran and this does not happen right away.
These soldiers will need immediate help and assistance. There is a reason that PTSD is considered a chronic condition - because it does not go away, ever!
We promised to take care of our own and we failed to do that so far. I'm a veteran and was stationed at Ft Lewis after returning from overseas - yes, that base is troubled but so is Bragg, Ft Drum and Ft Hood - what do they have in common? Foot soldiers, many deployments, several confirmed kills, psychological issues and no assistance while deployed, stateside and after release.
What the hell is going on? Are these people serious or just stuck on stupid an blind. Apparently we learned nothing from Vietnam.
Excellent point Jen. We NEVER should have been off our shores in the first place. God bless you and your husband. Geez when I swear like you did I got kicked off for a while. No problem though I appreciate that you have vented REAL GOOD!
Bobby...okay..I was nice the first time around. Now I'm not going to be nice. Unless you have any combat experience, you are in absolutely NO position to be pontificating to me or any other combat vet (or spouse of a combat vet) what is and what is not combat induced trauma. You and all the other armchair quarterbacks who seem to think you know it all from watching Saving Private Ryan need to SHUT THE F*CK UP!!!!
Sorry, but my PTSD seems to kick in every time I read STUPID posts on here. lol!
@OilmanMD: Never mind Bobby - he is either an idiot or a troll. I have never been close to combat of any kind, but that does not keep me from empathy for those who are/have been traumatized by combat, nor does it keep me from sympathy for their spouses & other family members. Our society seems to have lost track of those two simple emotions as well as caring for our troops. It seems that anger and hatred have become the norm... fed by overzealous political hacks and their fans.
A special hug for you and a big "Thank you!" for your service to our country - no matter how or where, but especially for combat duty. Now don't let the little peabrains get you down!!
Seems the two of you need some reading comprehension classes. If you can't have a discussion without getting emotional don't log on to newsvine.
You tell me what's worse. Being able to defend yourself in a combat zone, or being sent into a combat zone and instructed not to defend yourself?
How's that for trauma buddy, go get shot at and stand down. That is much worse than true combat which we haven't seen since WWII.
Goes without saying the poor guy snapped, who here could say it would never happen to them? I can honestly say that it would take a better person than myself NOT to open up on a village that the enemy openly hides in and strikes a "brother".
stonepipe
And you would be just a wrong. Open combat is one thing, shooting an unarmed person while they sleep, even the enemy, is wrong on many levels.
You apparently have read nothing of PTSD. People with full blown PTSD have flashbacks of the traumatic event or events that lead to the PTSD and not just periods of thinking about these events-FLASHBACKS, as in for all intents and purposes experiencing the same situation again in real time, over and over, either during sleep as very real nightmares or in extreme or deteriorating cases while awake, these people have trouble sleeping,and without treatment become very hyper vigilant and paranoid, a number of them become psychotic..with hallucinations that relate to their traumas (a rape victim seeing people following them, a combat soldier who has witnessed death at the hands of supposed innocents of his comrades believing his company to be in imminent danger of attack by villagers) I am not pretending to know what happened here, my first thought was absolutely no excuse for killing unarmed people (and of course like most American's I especially was appalled by the children's murders) Then I heard a retired military officer on FAUX intimate that in order to have perpetrated this the man must have been "inclined" toward violence and combat had influenced him to this end. Being smart enough to realize a person inclined toward senseless violence in a war zone would probably have ample opportunity to do so in a way where he was less likely to get caught-I believe he turned himself in )and I should reject out of hand FAUX pseudo experts....I decided to do a little research on PTSD...these people are experiencing a REAL and IMMINENT danger of some sort. We had better have lots of treatment services and money after all these marathon deployments.
Trust- so you say you would wake up an enemy so you could get in a firefight because it is't "sporting" old chap? In a ambush do you announce that you are there and take casualties because it's not fair? All that I stated was everyone has a breaking point-even you-and if you deny it you are a liar.
I suspect strongly this guy wouldn't have done anything like this if he were a simple blue-collar worker (or even one of those white collar guys) living a typical American life with his wife and two children.
Did people of all creeds/colors/nationalities and backgrounds "snap" like this in past wars (e.g., Crusades, French Revolution, Roman battles, WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Korea, etc., etc.)? Yes they did. EVERYTIME a country's leader sends his/her war fighters to another country, things like this happen, more than once. Has there been a declared war or "other conflict type" where this didn't happen. No.
War and/or Armed Conflict creates montsters - plain and simple. Had we not gone or pulled out in short order, the likelihood of this happening would be near zero, even for this guy that we've called all manners of evil.
It's amazing when an Afghan civilian kills one of our soldiers, it rarely makes for more than a small obituary in a small town but the media is really fueling this one. Those houses may have been used as hideouts for people taking pop shots at our guys and the soldier was sick of being told not to return fire for fear of hurting some idiots feelings. Do we have all the facts? No. I can say that the media is keeping this one fueled. How many women and kids over the years have opened fire on our guys, helped plant IEDs, or carried suicide bombs. To us, they're women and kids. Over there, they can be a lethal weapon.
So you advocate killing unarmed people in their sleep?
I'm saying we do not have the facts. These very people could have not been so innocent or maybe a soldier just snapped. Neither of us were there to know what happened and I stand by the fact that throughout the years, women and children have been used to attack our soldiers in various ways while our guys typically conduct themselves above their adversaries. Not always but typically. BTW, do you know for fact that there were no weapons in these homes? AK-47s, RPGs, IEDs, etc?
Thank you glock9 for repeating we do not have all the facts and the villagers should put down their pitchforks. You have to remember for the most part we are in libworld-pink sky, butterfly and unicorns are abound. I myself carry the 36.
I've said it before I'll say it again, we're just as sick of them as they are of us. Bring EVERYONE home.
This is a man who was clearly overwhelmed after multiple tours. Humans have limits. He should have an insanity defense. What defense will the politicians have who ordered the "shock and awe" bombings which obliterated thousands of innocent lives, in a war with pretended justification?
Where was this guy's chain of command? Where was the senior NCO? Where were the combat stress medics? It sounds like this war has bred complacency among the officers and senior enlisted, who know nothing of the state of mind of their subordinates. This guy needed to be sent home and discharged from the Army, not left out toting weapons around civilians! And the chain of command needs accountability as well. Where is the IG?
Holy smokes! Read through the comments, we are turning on each-other at such an alarming rate and intensity. I need to reiterate, nobody is going to win here and everybody loses on this one especially those unfortunate military staff still deployed. My two cents said, if one reads all the comments, you come across a sprinkling of sensible well thought out posts. I think @99% of the comments reflects our societal PTSD from everything that has transpired since 9/11/2001. This tendency to blame one man doesn't make any sense to me, what about our Congress, our Representatives, ALL of our "leaders" collectively being held accountable?
Rez,bring back the draft and you'll see it end ricki tic.
Guess this guy has never heard of suicide bombers.
If he was going after someone he should have waited on Karzai to visit he is the enemy within a power hungry flake. I just wish him and his family a fitting end when we leave. from the folks that he represents in his own mind.
So what does the fact that he is married and has two kids to do with the actions of which he is accused? MSNBC is plainly just weird.
Because people will try to profile him as a loner with no reason for living.
I find this comment weird as well - so what he has two kids, does this make him sicker than the next soldier with psychological issues?
It almost seems that some are afraid that if we admit that we must treat all of our soldiers for psychological issues - somebody may think back to why and how these wars started in the first place!
Oh, my God - way may need Obama Care to treat all of our soldiers with mental health issues, either that or let these soldiers come home and use our loved ones for shooting practice.
3 tours, some with confirmed kills is too much for anybody, even trained military members.
Just when perceptions of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan couldn't sink much lower, at home and abroad... Hopefully people will remember that the vast majority of those who serve are good and decent! My take can be found here, please read:
Thanks!
Just when public perception of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan (at home, and abroad) couldn't sink much lower, this tragedy has to happen... I do hope that people remember that the vast majority of those who serve are decent and honourable people. Please read my take on the issue here:
Thanks!
When are we going to pay attention?
Fort Lewis is struggling just like other bases in the United States to contain and treat soldiers who are returning from several deployments with mental health issues.
If a young man has been on 2 or 3 deployments, has confirmed kills or not, returns without getting any psychological assistance what the hell is this country expecting to happen? If he had been here in the states he would have simply waltzed down to the local school or Pigly Wiggly - He's Sick!!! Get it.
Let's not make him the poster child for PTSD since we did not bother to complete a psych eval on him after a couple of tours.
I was stationed at the base in Ft Lewis - yes, there is something wrong there. The community seems overwhelmed by the amount of soldiers on the combined Army and Air Force base there. John Muhammed - the D.C. sniper was from that base. The guy that shot the park ranger was discharged from that base and now this guy.
Besides crime, psychological issues, accidents, murders and suicides the community in Tacoma has got to be reeling from all plus the bad publicity that all this trouble brings.
It is time to get our soldiers back here and psych evals completed - either that or instead of taking care of our own we will be trying to protect ourselves from our own - our choice.
Why did the media bring his children into this mess,it will put them at risk.
Do you think he might have been upset over obama's apology over some paper books and the resulting deaths of soldiers? That he gave something real for obama to apologize for!!!
No.
No
Well I guess maybe you two do not understand the loyality a soldier has to his buddies. I'm sure that was the reason and in truth, that's what will come out in the investigation. That's why liberals will neve understand or be friends of the military.
These soliers make excellent money being over there and it is hard to come home and make less... your family has changed its standard of living. A young wife with children has also found a way to make life work for them without you. You are making less money and the family lets you know about it, the family has adjusted to you being gone (you are literally in their way), so you go back one too many times. The responsibility of this action lies on the military that allows a soldier to go into the game one too many times. The accountability of this action lies square on this man's shoulders. The horrors of men and war...
Whatever military goals were set in place a decade ago have been met now. My thoughts are with the families of those deployed who are now in even greater danger and with the Afghan families who lost their loved ones... both have lost faith in each other.
We citizens need to stand up now for our own service men & women. We need to collectively state... out loud & loudly so our President, SecDef, Cabinet, Congressional representatives hear us clearly... shut down Afghan ops now & bring our troops home.
We need to use social media for our own Spring uprising: arrive at the same time outside the White House, the Capital building and the Pentagon... and stand there silently with big signs saying: BRING OUR TROOPS HOME!
Hugs to those who have serviced & are serving & to their families.
This is so sad and terrible! Why, why, why? If found guilty, he should be turned over to the Afghans to deal with him. This is unconscionable.
As a veteran - your comment is stupid and it's clear that you do not understand anything in reference to psychological disorders. You better hope that you can connect before all of these soldiers return home, trained to kill and very angry.
Maybe you will try to understand then.
Turn him over to the Afghans? Are you serious?
Figures AZ,what does the air have in it in Arizona crack?
So this is the story eh ? This guy, all by his lonesome, walks thru the front gate of the FOB in full battle rattle ? Nobody challenged him ? If this is indeed the case, not only should the shooter be held responsible. But we're going to have to go up pretty high in the food chain as well.
There is no.....and I mean no way a single soldier can just walk out of a FOB by himself. The Army doesn't like for their soldiers to show up on Al Jeezra TV getting their heads lopped off. The Army doesn't send anyone out of the front gate by themselves, a single soldier is a liability not a asset. Security at the FOB has to be a joke, and I hope those that are equally responsible higher up's. Have the thumb screws put to them, for this fiasco.
Yes, I also find it strange that this one lone soldier, walked 15 miles into town, with a gun and ammunition, killed all of these people - going door-to-door, did he have a silencer on this weapon?
This would mean that his command was asleep and so was the Afghan command - he turned himself in? He was on foot for 15 miles?
I'm sorry I'm not connecting, maybe his accomplices if any were were from Afghanistan - now that would turn this story on its ears.
And maybe Hamid Karzai needs to shut up until this investigation is over because his soldiers are closer to crazy than ours will ever be.
I'm sorry that this happened but let's not throw this one sick soldier under the bus.
Did either of you think that the guards might have been newbies and about crapped themselves when the sarge got in their face? We have NO facts about how this happened. Now it's 15 miles? It was only one mile two hours ago.