2 National Guard Members shot (1 has died) near White House

  • Thread starter Thread starter nycfan
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nycfan said:
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Of course it was pointless. I see them every day standing around shooting the shit and doing a whole lot of nothing. I was 2 blocks from the incident when it happened and saw the first responder vehicles drive by. The military occupying that part of DC is absurd. The stunt-like nature of this nonsense “mission” is exactly what made them a target for a psycho like this guy in the first place. Absolutely infuriating that this young Soldier dies because Donald Trump has to pretend to be a tough guy all the time.
 
Bigs23 said:
What do people think “fighting crime” in DC will look like?
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Not sure, but being on the lookout for crazed former CIA assassins who had fled to the United States because of what they had done in their home country would not make my personal top ten answers to your question.
 
nycfan said:
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“… The AP reported that 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal had drawn concern for months, with interviews and records showing him dropping out of work, slipping into long periods of silence and taking abrupt road trips ahead of the shooting.

One email cited by the AP warned that "Rahmanullah has not been functional as a person, father and provider since March of last year," describing how he quit his job, shut himself in a "darkened room" for days and stopped responding even to his wife and older children.

The emails showed that an advocate feared he might harm himself but said they never saw signs suggesting he might become violent toward others.

… The swings reportedly intensified as he abandoned English classes, drifted in and out of short-term jobs and left his children arriving at school unbathed or wearing the same clothes for days.

… Before arriving in the U.S. in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, Lakanwal served in a Zero Unit of the Afghan Army, a force backed by the CIA.

Advocates working with Afghan evacuees said some former members of those units carried deep trauma from years of conflict, though it remains unclear whether that history played a role in Lakanwal's behavior in the U.S….”
 
I am so frustrated by the apparent inability of the media to report on this terrible story. The killing of National Guardsmen, whether they should have been in DC or not, is tragic, and I understand why that has been the focus of the reporting. But there's a part of this story that's just as tragic, with potentially far more significant ramifications, and I'm not seeing media sources doing much of anything to tell it. In short, and I'm sure there's a lot more detail that would be worth reporting --

1. Lakanwal appears to have been recruited by US forces in Afghanistan to serve in something resembling a black ops team of Afghans who would infiltrate and attack the Taliban. Like many US special forces, this meant he saw and did some terrible things during the course of his service.

2. When Trump negotiated the Doha agreement with the Taliban in 2019, he had no intention of removing ANY of our Afghan allies from Afghanistan, including people who risked their lives for us like Lakanwal. Trump intended to leave them all behind in a country that everyone knew, especially after the Doha agreement, would be taken back over by the Taliban.

3. The Biden administration was able to bring many, but certainly not all, of our Afghan allies to the US in late 2020 and early 2021. It was ugly, messy, chaotic, and a messaging disaster, but it meant Afghans like Lakanwal were given a chance to avoid what would have been an almost certain death at the hands of the Taliban.

4. Afghan asylum applicants were settled in communities across the country. We received and welcomed many of them here in Charlotte. Lakanwal appears to have been settled near Seattle.

5. The government did not do anything meaningful to provide for the basic necessities of the Afghan refugees, which meant many of them, including Lakanwal, have been in destitute poverty since they arrived, dependent on the care of America's great charities and community support organizations.

6. Even more importantly, the government has done nothing to provide medical and psychological care for the Afghans like Lakanwal who experienced immense trauma to support our military efforts in Afghanistan. Compare this to the care we provide American special forces, which may not be perfect, but is designed to care for the particularized trauma they experience in their unique combat engagements.

None of this is to defend what Lakanwal did. Whether with terroristic intent or in a psychotic break, his shooting of the National Guardsmen was abhorrent and inexcusable. But the American public, including the media, appears to want to sweep our behavior related to Afghanistan under the rug, and that is doing a grave disservice not just to Lakanwal, but also to all the other Afghans seeking asylum in the US who are now being targeted by Miller and his xenophobic minions for no reason whatsoever. Our hands were covered in blood when we left Afghanistan. But instead of doing something to make things better, we just keep opening new wounds.
 
lawtig02 said:
I am so frustrated by the apparent inability of the media to report on this terrible story. The killing of National Guardsmen, whether they should have been in DC or not, is tragic, and I understand why that has been the focus of the reporting. But there's a part of this story that's just as tragic, with potentially far more significant ramifications, and I'm not seeing media sources doing much of anything to tell it. In short, and I'm sure there's a lot more detail that would be worth reporting --

1. Lakanwal appears to have been recruited by US forces in Afghanistan to serve in something resembling a black ops team of Afghans who would infiltrate and attack the Taliban. Like many US special forces, this meant he saw and did some terrible things during the course of his service.

2. When Trump negotiated the Doha agreement with the Taliban in 2019, he had no intention of removing ANY of our Afghan allies from Afghanistan, including people who risked their lives for us like Lakanwal. Trump intended to leave them all behind in a country that everyone knew, especially after the Doha agreement, would be taken back over by the Taliban.

3. The Biden administration was able to bring many, but certainly not all, of our Afghan allies to the US in late 2020 and early 2021. It was ugly, messy, chaotic, and a messaging disaster, but it meant Afghans like Lakanwal were given a chance to avoid what would have been an almost certain death at the hands of the Taliban.

4. Afghan asylum applicants were settled in communities across the country. We received and welcomed many of them here in Charlotte. Lakanwal appears to have been settled near Seattle.

5. The government did not do anything meaningful to provide for the basic necessities of the Afghan refugees, which meant many of them, including Lakanwal, have been in destitute poverty since they arrived, dependent on the care of America's great charities and community support organizations.

6. Even more importantly, the government has done nothing to provide medical and psychological care for the Afghans like Lakanwal who experienced immense trauma to support our military efforts in Afghanistan. Compare this to the care we provide American special forces, which may not be perfect, but is designed to care for the particularized trauma they experience in their unique combat engagements.

None of this is to defend what Lakanwal did. Whether with terroristic intent or in a psychotic break, his shooting of the National Guardsmen was abhorrent and inexcusable. But the American public, including the media, appears to want to sweep our behavior related to Afghanistan under the rug, and that is doing a grave disservice not just to Lakanwal, but also to all the other Afghans seeking asylum in the US who are now being targeted by Miller and his xenophobic minions for no reason whatsoever. Our hands were covered in blood when we left Afghanistan. But instead of doing something to make things better, we just keep opening new wounds.
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This is an excellent post, but the problem is that the vast majority of the public would rather ignore the background of this whole episode than have to learn, and think about, how the sausage gets made when it comes to American foreign policy. I do hope we'll see some more in-depth reporting on this from larger media outlets, though.
 
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