Posted on 03/13/2012 7:43:07 AM PDT by Robert Drobot
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the death penalty could be possible as the military investigates a U.S. soldier suspected of shooting and killing at least 16 Afghans on Sunday, according to the Associated Press. Speaking to reporters traveling with him to Kyrgyzstan on Monday, Panetta said the killings must not derail the U.S.-led military mission in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Reuters cites a U.S. official as saying the Army staff sergeant was treated for a traumatic brain injury sustained in 2010 in Iraq. The official, however, did not say there was necessarily a link between that injury and the killing spree in Afghanistan.
Gen. John Allen, commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, told CNN earlier on Monday that the suspect acted alone. The soldier, who was supporting a village stability operation to help local police, was quickly noticed when he left his base in the Panjwai district in southern Afghanistan. As the American soldiers realized who was missing during a headcount, and the search party was forming, Allen said, "we began having indications of the outcome of his departure."
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...
Not to have to “internet condom” up, or anything, but I DO wonder what they are saying about this over at Democratic Underground. If they are calling for his public execution, without a trial. Should be real interesting over there, considering how generally anti-death penalty in nature they are, and when a mass murdered in Texas gets the injection(s), they have memorial services and wakes over there on that site.
If Ft Hood was workplace violence, per the Obama thugs, what is this? Community outreach?
Meanwhile Gitmo terrorist are enjoying their new soccer field........
New info there... didn't know that was the case. Sounds like a mitigating factor to me.
The death penalty will never happen. The brain injury will spare him both that and a lengthy prison term.
It’s only a matter of time until Panetta ships that soldier off to the World Court. 0bama is only the ‘front man’ for the REAL change.
Local Seattle news is now reporting that he was trained as a sniper - the story keeps changing, which really makes me wonder what backstory the military/media are hiding.
That plus the fact that the U.S. military has not executed anyone since 1961.
It’s common courtesy to post a link when you bring new information to a thread.
We’ll soon learn that the shooter’s name was Captain Jonathan S. Tuttle.
“Use your search engine.”
I didn’t even know about this until now. Had no reason to search for something I was unaware of. I have now.
From some quick reading I gather that the military’s response to traumatic brain injury is woefully inadequate; both in terms of medical treatment offered and in understanding long term impact on the injured.
When Panetta isn’t back-stabbing the brave men he manipulates for power gain, he is outting the Pakistani doctor who helped us find bin Laden.
No idea of when to keep his mouth shut. Literally a loose cannon.
Lets see if the usual suspects of ambulance chases get in line to defend him pro bono.
The Fort Hood terrorist received better treatment than this young sergeant, who was suffering from traumatic brain injury and PTSD. The man should never have been sent back to the Middle East, let alone to that region of Afghanistan.
This incident was Obama’s fault. Obama called for the Afghanistan Surge, saying that Afghanistan was the RIGHT war, that Iraq was not. Then Obama changed the rules of engagement, denying our military the right to defend themselves. Obama owes the world an apology, as well as an apology to our troops.
would not be surprised if the military did not want to give him medical disability for his brain injury..so deemed him fit to go over on tour number 4. Four tours is bad enough for a healthy soldier..
If you'll excuse a few of the blatant left-wing shots here, George Carlin was right on:
"I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Cause Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent the kind of a soft language to protest themselves from it, and it gets worse with every generation. For some reason, it just keeps getting worse."
" I'll give you an example of that. There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum. Can't take anymore input. The nervous system has either (click) snapped or is about to snap. In the first world war, that condition was called 'Shell Shock.'
Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables, 'Shell Shock.' Almost sounds like the guns themselves. That was seventy years ago.
Then a whole generation went by and the Second World War came along and very same combat condition was called 'Battle Fatigue.' Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to hurt as much. 'Fatigue' is a nicer word than 'Shock.' 'Shell shock!' 'Battle Fatigue.'
Then we had the war in Korea, 1950. Madison Avenue was riding high by that time, and the very same combat condition was called 'Operational Exhaustion.' Hey, were up to eight syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase. It's totally sterile now. 'Operational Exhaustion.' Sounds like something that might happen to your car.
Then of course, came the war in Viet Nam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years, and thanks to the lies and deceits surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called 'Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.' Still eight syllables, but we've added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. 'Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.' I'll bet you if we'd of still been calling it 'Shell Shock', some of those Viet Nam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I'll betcha. I'll betcha.
“Afghan killings bring the war to presidential campaign debate” is the Washington Post’s headline.. This is exactly why this occurred. I do not believe this was a rogue soldier. He was merely part of a plot to discredit ‘those evil republicans who started the war in Afghanistan’ for purposes of 0bama’s campaign leverage.
OMG. That poor man. They had no business sending him back.
I was always under the impression that PTSD was a psychological condition brought on by the stress of a person witnessing extremely traumatic events in combat. I did not think it equated with traumatic brain injury.
I would not be at all surprised if both conditions did not receive the medical care and attention they warrant. In part because of the push to get soldiers back into active service as quickly as possible because of the need for man power.
Panetta should be rode out of town on a rail.
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