For this week: the news story focuses on the US soldier who killed 16 Afghan civilians.  Even as this story unfolds, we already know that this soldier served three tours of duty in Iraq, suffered a brain injury and some suggest suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome.  Read the account and post your comments below.

 

U.S.
Soldier Massacres 16 Afghan Civilians

The
Wired Word
for March 18, 2012

In the News

In the early hours of last Sunday morning, an American soldier serving in
Afghanistan apparently slipped out of his combat outpost and headed for two
villages in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province.

Over the next hour, wearing night goggles, he allegedly entered the homes of several
Afghan civilians and executed them with a pistol. After killing 16 people,
including three women and nine children, and wounding several others, he dragged
some of the bodies outside and set them on fire. Eleven members of one family
were among the dead.

He then walked back to his outpost and surrendered to his fellow soldiers,
admitting what he'd done.

The remaining villagers were in shock, which soon turned to anger. Many had
previously fled the area while fighting between U.S. forces and the Taliban took
place there, but had returned after being assured that the area was now safe.
That assurance, said one village woman, came from Americans at the nearby
military base.

This massacre comes on the heels of two previous incidents that have been used to
provoke widespread anger among Afghanis: a video of U.S. Marines urinating on
the bodies of dead Taliban fighters, and the mistaken burning of Qurans at
Bagram Air Base.

The U.S. military has not released the name of the alleged shooter, and confirmed
information is sparse, but it is said that he is a 38-year-old staff sergeant
based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington. It's also reported
that he had served three tours of duty in Iraq before being deployed to
Afghanistan, that he is a trained sniper, that he suffered a mild traumatic
brain injury in a vehicle accident in 2010 while on duty in Iraq (he went
through advanced TBI treatment and was cleared to return to duty) and that he
was having marital problems. There are reports that he was drinking the night of
the slayings, although the U.S. military bans troops from consuming alcohol in
combat zones and alcohol is illegal in Afghanistan (although available on the
black market). Some commentators have suggested that he may have been suffering
from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but there has been no official
confirmation of that, and the Army reassigns soldiers with known PTSD to
non-combat areas.

(Some background information: The U.S. Army's goal is a nine-month deployment followed
by 36 months "dwell time" back at home for training, etc. Current rotation
schedules are for nine months deployed, but 12 months has been common, with some
15-month deployments during the "surge."  Doing the math, it appears that this
soldier's dwell time was 33 months instead of 36.)

As of this writing (on Wednesday), the soldier has refused to give any reason for
his shooting spree.

President Obama has promised that the perpetrator will be held fully accountable and that
his actions will not change the U.S.'s mission in Afghanistan or shorten the
timetable for moving responsibility for the security of the country from U.S. to
Afghan forces. Nonetheless, virtually all observers agree that this incident has
made the U.S. mission in Afghanistan more difficult and will likely result in
claimed retaliatory actions against Americans in that country, as well as
against other Afghanis. The Afghan Taliban has threatened to retaliate by
beheading U.S. personnel. The actions of this soldier have already brought an
attack on members of an Afghan government delegation offering condolences in the
affected villages. One member of that delegation was killed.
   
More on this story can be found at these links:

A Soldier's Deadly March to Massacre in Kandahar. CNN
Afghan
Killings Could Impact Military Mission. CNN
Afghan
Massacre Suspect: "I Did It." ABC News 

Copyright

2012 Communication Resources

To start this week's dialogue, Dave Wasserman, Presbytery Interim Executive writes:  The second big question in the materials asks, "What does the Christian faith have to say about irreversible losses in our lives?"  In John 11:25-26, Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and belives in me will never die."

As Christians, these words help us face irreversible loss.  The promise about the future provides a peace in the present, though many times it takes a while - through our grieving - to find that peace.  But this news story is complicated when the families of the victims are most likely not Christian.  Their faith may approach irreversible loss differently. 

So, I wonder how Christians can witness to their faith to non-Christians in these circumstances.  And particularly, those soldiers in Afghanistan who are Christian and facing the Afghanistani people.

Closing Prayer

O God, be present in a healing way with those who lost loved ones in this shooting incident. Help those wounded to recover. Be with members of our military, that the hell of war might not take root in their hearts and minds. In Jesus' name. Amen.