Soldier Suspected In Afghan Deaths ‘Did Not Want To Deploy’

The soldier suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians was reluctant to deploy and was told he was not going to go, according to the defense attorney hired to help represent him.

Seattle-based defense attorney John Henry Browne said in a news conference Thursday that his client had already served three tours in Iraq, during which he lost part of his foot and suffered a head injury when his vehicle crashed after a roadside bomb exploded nearby.

Brown says those injuries and “other reasons” led the soldier to believe he was not going to be sent to Afghanistan.

The soldier, whose name has not been released, went on a shooting rampage killing 9 children and 7 adults, all Afghan civilians, early Sunday morning. He is being flown from Kuwait to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Afghan lawmakers want him to be tried in Afghanistan, but his attorney says he expects a court-martial in the U.S.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says this would be the most high-profile war-crime in the Afghan war and the death penalty is a possibility.

Guest:

Hal Bernton, reporter for the Seattle Times

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Russ from New Hampshire

This is yet another horrendous consequence of this country’s repetition compulsion of getting into and staying at war when we had no business there in the first place.

In the process, we wring out every ounce of physical and psychological health of our soldiers until they snap and commit atrocities like this. And STILL, the President says this won’t deter us from our mission in Afghanistan. For Christ’s sake, will we ever learn????
Patrick_smokey

I think I missed the part where you discussed the horror and devastation experienced by the man who returned home to find his 4 sons and 4 young daughters slaughtered and then thrown in a pile and burned along with his wife. I understand that joint base Lewis McChord has experienced some hard times with their appalling record of producing blindly homicidal sociopaths that indiscriminately kill innocent civilians who are simply trying to make it through the hell of an extended foreign occupation, but perhaps you could mention the people who are actually affected by the havoc that these soldiers are wreaking.
Foleypp

I may be remembering the wron segemt but there was a reporter from a newspaper near Joint Base Lewis McCord saying he could not walk on base to check out soldiers opinions. I have never seen any military base without places near the gates where military members dring off base.

Paul Foley
Philadelphia
Navy 65-71