OT - US Soldier kills 16 Civilians in Afghanistan

[Mahatatain]

Originally Posted by Webstral

I have a morbid curiosity regarding the soldier’s background. How many tours has he served? Did he just get served with divorce papers? What else is going on in his home life? Has his unit been hard-hit of late? Did his best friend just die? What motivated him to sign the death warrant for 16 Afghans and a yet-to-be-determined number of American troops?

From reading things on the BBC website (which is quoting the AP news agency for much of this) and watching news reports on the BBC I believe that the soldier:
- is a 38yr old staff sergeant
- is a married father of "at least" two
- was working alongside special forces as force protection ("where part of his role was to guard the base for special forces, which would have enabled him to come and go more easily")
- had not had special forces training
- had served three tours of duty in Iraq
- was deployed to Afghanistan for the first time in December
- has served in the army for 11 years

There are also what the BBC calls "some reports" saying that some time before the killings, the soldier suffered a nervous breakdown. That sounds like a much poorer source of information though.

BTW I'm British and I don't hate Americans. I'm not overly keen on soldiers (of any nationality) who indiscriminately kill civilians (or on insurgents who kill our soldiers and their own civilians) but if it subsequently turns out that this soldier has had some form of nervous breakdown then you have to question the decision to send him to Afghanistan.