Who is Really Responsible for Afghan Massacre?

A murder rampage by an American soldier, who killed sixteen, probably marks the end of all hope that anything good will come of our decade-long involvement in Afghanistan.  Now, everyone is screaming for the death penalty for this guy, but that may just be a convenient way of evading the real responsibility for this slaughter:

"The U.S. Army staff sergeant who allegedly murdered 16 Afghan civilians in a dead-of-night spasm of shooting, stabbing and fire-setting is reported to have suffered a traumatic brain injury during a deployment to Iraq in 2010. That bit of medical history could prove significant in the promised investigation by U.S. military officials -- and potentially, in the soldier's criminal defense. Or not.

Research on traumatic brain injury has established a clear link between brain trauma and irritable, aggressive behavior that can be explosive, often without apparent warning or provocation."

President Obama, you have had three years to show some leadership and state clearly that the war in Afghanistan was lost when George Bush and Dick Cheney decided to devote our military to committing a criminal aggression against Iraq, rather than finish their job in Afghanistan.  That is the truth, and by running from that truth, you have made things like this inevitable. We should have been out of Afghanistan and Iraq within months of your election, and every miserable thing that has happened since is the result of your cowardice.  Now, you are screwed no matter what you do, and you have attached your name to our failure in the Mideast, which should have stood as the clearest example of the failure of Republican foreign policy.  Instead, you have virtually paved the way for further failures like this.

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