http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/...ain/index.html

Another soldier attached to the 101st is being questioned in connection with the fatal grenade and small arms attack early Sunday at one of the division's camps in northern Kuwait, according to Army V Corps spokesman Max Blumenfeld. U.S. military officials said 12 soldiers were wounded, at least five of them seriously.

Another reporter in the camp said a brigade commander told him the soldier in custody lobbed three grenades into the three tents housing commanding officers from the tactical operations center.

Bizarre.

its not hard to lose your mind in a war.

So what is this? One of our own blew up our camp??

Yeppers that's pretty much what it's saying there...

I guess the anti-war feelings extend beyond the civilians and into the troops hearts themselves, making some of them a danger to the men around them. *shrugs* That'd be my guess.

Yeah....wonder that soldier knew wtf he was doing...

This guy had been acting strange and had voiced an anti-war opinion during the past few days, and so he was reprimanded as he should have been, and told he wasn't going to be allowed into the combat area. So then he got pissed and threw some grenades into his officer's tent, killing the officer and injuring something like 16 people.

He is a traitor to his own country, plain and simple.

but not a traitor to his own principles.

which would be easier to live with?

The heat could also have been a factor, some people can't handle heat, it makes them irrational.

Riots only happen when the ambient temperature is above a certain level.

Standing up for his rights, etc, blah blah, making his views known, then he would not have been a traitor.

But when he deliberately murdered his own people because of it, he became a traitor, and a disgrace to America, and to islam.

No, what I'm saying is that under normal circumstances he probably would have taken the rational path but from the combined stresses of war, heat and wrestling with his personal views, it could have pushed him to the edge of sanity.

I'm not saying this is what happened but it is a possibility, the guy must have been rational normally or he wouldn't have been in the position he was, it looks more like he snapped rather than the army let a nutcase wander around with a grenade.

some guys can't hack it...they get stressed out and pissed off and lose it. Remember the xmilitary "Sniper"? Fucking Schizo.

Maybe they need to train them in what signs to look out for.

There is a specific term for it (going nuts like that) but I'm not sure what it is.

Remember then guy in Full Metal Jacket?
It's roughly the same situation, he too was fighting the inner turmoil of "this is not my war".

Sgt. Akbar...the dude was a muslim...SU-PRIIIISE SU-PRIIIIISE.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story...,00.html2.15pm update
------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Resentment' fuelled Muslim GI's attack

Staff and agencies
Monday March 24, 2003

US army officials said today that the motive for a grenade attack on an American army command centre in Kuwait, apparently carried out by a US soldier, was probably "resentment".

Sergeant Asan Akbar, a Muslim, is being held on suspicion of throwing grenades into three tents at the camp, killing a fellow serviceman.

Army captain Christopher Scott Seifert, 27, who was sleeping in his tent at the time, was killed during the attack.

Fifteen other soldiers, including the brigade commander, were wounded - at least three of them seriously - in the attack early on Sunday morning at Camp Pennsylvania, the rear base for the 101st airborne division, near the Iraqi border.

Ten of the injured had superficial wounds, including punctures to their arms and legs from grenade fragments, military officials said. No further details were released.

It was initially reported that terrorists, possibly members of al-Qaida, were responsible for the grenade attack. Later it emerged that a US soldier was being investigated over the incident. Sgt Akbar, who would have commanded between four and seven soldiers, was found hiding in a bunker after the attack, officials said.

A military spokesman, George Heath, said Sgt Akbar had not been charged with any crime. He did not say how long he had served in the military. If found guilty of any crime, he will be brought back to the US "for judicial punishment", Mr Heath said.

Mr Heath went on to say that Sgt Akbar, of the 326th Engineer Battalion, had been "having what some might call an attitude problem".

Another army spokesman, Max Blumenfeld, said the motive in the attack "most likely was resentment". No further details were available.

But Sgt Akbar's mother, in an interview with the Nashville newspaper The Tennessean, said he had long feared persecution by his fellow troops for being a Muslim. He also had said he had been recently reprimanded for insubordination.

"He said, 'Mama, when I get over there I have the feeling they are going to arrest me just because of the name that I have carried,'" his mother, Quran Bilal, was quoted as saying.

Initially, the military suspected the attack was the work of terrorists using two grenades and small-arms fire, Mr Heath said. Two Middle Eastern men hired as contractors were detained and released. Two Kuwaiti translators were also questioned and released.

An interior ministry official speaking on condition of anonymity said that all locally contracted workers in the camp, such as cleaners, drivers and volunteer translators, were still being investigated by the Americans.

Correct. Most people on here don't quite realize how much they check you out these days when you enter the military. If you have any mental problems, or anything that they are going to be worrying about, you're not joining anything.


He did snap. His behavior had changed over the past few days, they were suspicious of him, and he was reprimanded by an officer. That same officer was later killed by a grenade when they guy just finally flipped out.

I know, I've had 'em They're nothing compared to a psychological stress test though, they really should guve those to people entering those situations too.

It's where they keep pushing you, throwing everything at you until you snap, to guage your limits.

Ah, Bigotry raises it's ugly head again

Akbar? As in Allah akbar?

..as in Admiral Akbar in return of the Jedi

Somebody get me a cheeseburger.

they DO check you out if youre going into the military big time, they refused my entry to the navy a while back on the grounds that my left hand isnt 100% operational. However we know that during war time when there is a need for soldiers they do happen to overlook much of that, IE Vietnam, although this is far from a vietnam they arent drafting 18 year olds out of highschool yet.

I actually feel sorry for the guy. I'm willing to bet he put up with a lot of unfair shit. Not condoning his actions, but it's probably understandable that he snapped.