“An Afghan defense ministry official, who was not identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the shooter was an Afghan soldier who had argued with the U.S. forces before opening fire. He was not a Taliban infiltrator, the official said.”
One of the chief elements of the rap sheet on me from the Southern Poverty Law Center and its ally the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations is that I have said that there is no reliable way to distinguish jihadis from peaceful Muslims. And here we are, yet again.
And yet again, the fool’s errand in Afghanistan has no goal, no purpose, and no end point. Trump should bring our troops home. They should have been brought home years ago.
“2 American Soldiers Killed, 6 Wounded in Afghanistan Attack: U.S. Official,” by Rahim Faiez and Kathy Gannon, Associated Press, February 9, 2020:
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Two U.S. soldiers were killed and six wounded in a so-called insider attack in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province late Saturday when an Afghan dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire, the U.S. military said.
Afghanistan’s defense ministry said one Afghan soldier was also killed and three injured in the assault.
A member of Nangarhar’s provincial council, Ajmal Omer, told The Associated Press that the gunman was killed. Neither the U.S. military nor the Afghan defense ministry have confirmed the attacker’s fate.
The U.S. Department of Defense released later in the day the names of the dead American soldiers. They are Sgt. Javier Jaguar Gutierrez, 28; and Sgt. Antonio Rey Rodriguez, 28.
There have been numerous attacks by Afghan national army soldiers on their allied partners during 18 years of America’s protracted war in Afghanistan.
Six U.S. service members have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of 2020, including Saturday’s casualties. Last year, 22 U.S. service personnel died in combat there.
An Afghan defense ministry official, who was not identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the shooter was an Afghan soldier who had argued with the U.S. forces before opening fire. He was not a Taliban infiltrator, the official said.
In a statement, the U.S. military said “an individual in an Afghan uniform opened fire on the combined U.S. and Afghan force with a machine gun. We are still collecting information and the cause or motive behind the attack is unknown at this time.”…