Obama: US soldier’s reported shooting rampage in Afghanistan ‘tragic and shocking’

White House correspondent ^ | 11 March 2012 | Oliver Know

[rfreedom4u]

President Barack Obama on Sunday condemned the alleged slaughter of 16 Afghan civilians by an American soldier as "tragic and shocking" and assured Afghan President Hamid Karzai by telephone that the United States will "hold fully accountable anyone responsible" as the bloody incident plunged already deteriorating ties into a fresh crisis. Obama called Karzai, who denounced the reported shooting rampage as an unforgivable "assassination," to make clear "his Administration's commitment to establish the facts as quickly as possible and to hold fully accountable anyone responsible," the White House said in a statement. Obama expressed "his shock and sadness" to Karzai at the incident, which news reports said left mostly women and children among the dead, and "reaffirmed our deep respect for the Afghan people and the bonds between our two countries," the White House said. Ahead of the call, Obama received a briefing on the incident from top aides including National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough, and Special Assistant to the President for Afghanistan and Pakistan Doug Lute, according to National Security Council deputy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

It’s Obama’s fault.

[tet68]

Maybe Obama can get Karzai and the SStg. to sit down
for a “ Beer summit”. Kinda work things out.

[tet68]

SSgt. Sorry.

[Alberta's Child]

I predict this story is going to disappear quietly and we won't hear much about what happens to the alleged perpetrator.

For one thing, this is now "Obama's War," and the media doesn't stand to gain much unless it was pre-2009 and they could drape this incident around Bush's neck. Secondly, we are likely to learn some facts about the alleged perpetrator that will be a colossal embarrassment to the U.S. military and the Obama administration ... i.e., perhaps he had such obvious medical/psychiatric issues that any objective person would question why the hell he was in Afghanistan in the first place.

P.S. The Tiger Force incidents occurred before I was born ... so no, I'm not an old hippie. No offense taken!

[TexasSecede79366]

The story has already happened and Obama has weakened our position even further. Whether the incident even took place or not is irrelevant.

That's what happens when you put a "community organizer" in the seat of the Leader of the Free World and the elitist defend him.

He doesn't look like Alfred E. Neuman for no reason.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm not talking about the story itself ... I'm talking about the media coverage of the story. If the media wants to cover for Obama, they won't cover the story very extensively in the coming weeks once this initial uproar fades away.

How often do you hear about that Fort Hood terrorist these days, eh?

[outofstyle]

My guess is that this guy probably snapped in large part due to the restrictive (self-defeating) ROEs that got his buddies killed.

Or, his name could be Sgt. Farouk Mahmoud, and this could have been set up by The Taliban in order to get us out of there even sooner. I've got no evidence. But it's not like we don't have these guys in our military.

[MaxMax]

They will kill Karsi when we leave or he'll end up running around hiding in holes.
Our ROE is bullcrap! We have no control and our American Soldiers are paying the price.

[rbg81]

I’m sure there will be a lot of outrage about this...real and staged. Of course, you don’t hear a peep out of the Afghan people when the Taliban commit atrocities that probably make this look like a drop in the bucket.

[BlackVeil]

I was wondering the same thing. There is much about this event still to be explained.

[lonestar]

I was thinking the same thing!

[equaviator]

IMHO, when the Democrats sense their inevitable defeat ahead of November, they’ll do all they can to make conditions in the Middle East such that war will be inevitable by the time we have a new POTUS.

[cuban leaf]

—But it’s not like we don’t have these guys in our military.—

I could be wrong, but IIRC the first casualties of the Iraq war were some US servicemen killed by a grenade rolled into their tent by another US serviceman who was a muslim.