Call it a morbid curiosity, but I'm frankly shocked that The Internet hasn't yet figured out the identity of the U.S. soldier responsible for the recent massacre in Panjwai, Afghanistan. Here are a few clues we already about the shooter from multiple leaked reports:
- he's a 38 year-old married father of two children
- he was a staff sergeant deployed to Afghanistan in December from Fort Lewis, Washington (possibly in the 3rd Stryker Brigade's 2nd Infantry Division)
- he had already served three tours of duty in Iraq
- he was diagnosed with a "traumatic brain injury" after an incident in Iraq in 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
While I can acknowledge that speculating about this shooter's identity at such an early stage might be crass and irresponsible, his identity is a legitimate topic of public interest that must come out eventually. Imagine the difference between discovering that this perpetrator was an overburdened soldier who simply snapped in a moment of stress-induced insanity, or, by contrast, a cold-blooded psychopath motivated by the same anti-Islamic xenophobia that inspired Anders Behring Breivik. Sunday's massacre in Afghanistan is an unspeakable tragedy in any event, but its ramifications could vary tremendously depending on the identity (and motives) of the shooter.
So, with so many clues already leaked to the press, why hasn't his name come out yet?
