Reports: Death Penalty Possible in Afghan Killings Case ( Panetta Puke )

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."

Its certainly appropriate for a US court marshal panel to consider the death penalty in this case whether it should be leveled is up to them.

We are in a long term struggle with radical Islam requiring multiple tours of duty under the current force structure. This illustrates the folly of the planned defense cuts, if we want our troops to be healthy then we need to add troops not cut them and be willing to pay for it. Many serve four or more tours of duty without cracking.

Finally I had a similar TBI and it not an excuse for killing 16 women and children.

While I strongly support (and lived most of my adult life in) the professional military, this is an example of how the few shouldering an enormous burden tha tshould be a national responsibilty, can result in the exhaustion and deterioration of a man’s ablity to perform dnagerous tasks that no other situation can replicate. Firemen, police, trauma folks all go home at night to a dose of “normalcy”; our professional warriors go on and on and on for, in this example, 4+ years of combat deployments. I know of guys who have six and seven full tours down (Army tours, until this year, are at least 13 months)-they are consummate pros, but human nonetheless. True, this SSG is a volunteeer. He could ETS at any re-up point if he chose to, but he answered the call and stood up to the duty.

This man is responsible for his actions if otherwise sane, accounting for other mitigating circumstances.

Having served “tours” to these places myself, I cannot but wonder why more of our warriors do not figure out that it is really them against us. There is no resolution to the AFG or IRQ situations for that matter- they will continue to kill themselves and us over themselves no matter what resources we apply.

Welcome to Islam.....ROP.

We won the war(s), let’s now depart with honor. The Afghanis can do whatever they want, as they demonstrate daily, regardless of how much treasure, human or mammon, we throw at them.

This SSG will surely pay for what he has done, as will likley many others in theater. Hatfields and McCoys all over again.

I strongly support our involvement in matters of national security, but nation building is proven to be a flawed and failing concept.

May God help this Warrior, as our government surely won’t.

Almost makes me want to see a draft- only then, I think, will the rank and file of American Families stand up and speak to the issues.

Just to clarify, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), from which this Staff Sergeant suffers, differs from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

TBI is a general term denoting some type of physical injury to the brain tissue, such as a concussion, an internal bleed, a penetrating injury or the like.

PSTD is a psychological disorder.

“We’ll soon learn that the shooter’s name was Captain Jonathan S. Tuttle” : )

I am really starting to question this whole story - it is like every stereotype the left has against the military all rolled into one. What if this was actually a Taliban attack that the Afghans decided to blame on someone in the US Military so as to keep the locals stoked up...our Dear Leader and dumb as a brick Panetta would buy the whole thing without bothering to check the facts because it fits their preconceived ideas that US Soldiers are Neanderthal killing machines....so they they can’t backtrack and admit they were had so they are creating a “soldier” who shouldn’t have been there.

Traumatic brain injury is a really horrible thing that can manifest itself in self destructive psychotic conduct many years after the injury. I know from a tragic incident in my own family. The now now deceased son of a cousin of mine suffered a horrible traumatic brain injury in a hit and run accident at age 12. He functioned, apparently normally, until about two ago when, at about age 40, he received a major promotion at work. Just then all of his private torments got to him. He carefully planned and performed his own suicide by hanging.

Now just imagine this staff sergeant who suffered an equally frightful brain injury and is forced, over and over, endlessly to cycle back to the same pointless horror. The real surprise is this kind of break has only happened to one man rather than many. I’d say, from my own tragic experience, that this guy might be not guilty due to temporary insanity resulting from extreme brain trauma.

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