BAGHDAD, May 11, 2009
U.S. Soldier Kills 5 In Iraq Base Rampage
Suspected Gunman In Custody After Opening Fire At Camp Liberty Stress Clinic, Military Says
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Play CBS Video Video U.S. Soldier Kills 5 Americans An American sergeant opened fire at a combat stress center in Iraq, killing five American soldiers before being subdued. David Martin reports.
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CENTCOM is investigating the shooting at Camp Liberty in Baghdad in which five U.S. soldiers were killed. (globalsecurity.org)
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Photo Essay Week In Iraq Photos A daily diary with scenes of the latest attacks and snapshots from the effort to rebuild a nation.
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In The Spotlight Iraq War + 6 The end of the U.S. mission in Iraq is in sight; less clear is the country's future.
Although it was unclear what prompted the shooting, the incident draws attention to the issue of combat stress and morale after six years of war as the mission of the 130,000-strong force transforms to one of training and mentoring the Iraqis.
Attacks on fellow soldiers, known as fraggings, were not uncommon during the Vietnam war but are believed to be rare in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"You can't protect against everything, especially your own. This is unusual … You're protecting usually from the outside in, not the inside out," CBS News military analyst David Granger said.
The stress center had been set up for the express purpose of dealing with the explosions of mental problems caused by the repeated deployments and close-quarters combat of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.
President Barack Obama said in a statement that he was "shocked and deeply saddened" by the report, adding that "my heart goes out to the families and friends" of all those involved "in this horrible tragedy."
After a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Mr. Obama said he would make sure "that we fully understand what led to this tragedy" and will do everything possible "to ensure that our men and women in uniform are protected as they serve our country so capably and courageously in harm's way."
A brief U.S. military statement said the assailant was taken into custody following the 2 p.m. shooting at Camp Liberty, a sprawling U.S. base on the western edge of Baghdad near the city's international airport. Mr. Obama visited an adjacent base last month.
The statement said nobody else was hurt, but a senior defense official in Washington said three people were wounded. The names of the victims and shooter were not released.
It was unclear whether the gunman and his victims were workers at the clinic or were there for counseling. Soldiers routinely carry weapons on Camp Liberty and other bases, but they are supposed to be unloaded.
At the Pentagon, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the shooting occurred "in a place where individuals were seeking help."
"It does speak to me about the need for us to redouble our efforts in terms of dealing with the stress," Mullen said.
According to the most recent figures, 300,000 service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have reported a mental health problem, reports Martin.
"As long as the demand on forces stays what it is right now and the supply of forces remains the same, it will be very difficult for us to do anything with that stress. But we've got to help soldiers understand how they can cope with that stress," Army Vice Chief of Staff Pete Chiarelli told CBS News.
With violence declining, many soldiers face new challenges trying to shift from fighting a war to supporting the Iraqis - tasks that often require skills in which they have not been trained.
Adding to the stress, there have been several incidents recently when men dressed as Iraqi soldiers have opened fire on American troops, including an attack in the northern city of Mosul on May 2 when two soldiers and the gunman were killed.
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chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Rep. Harry Mitchell, a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said the Camp Liberty shooting underscores the "critical need" to reach out to soldiers suffering from "the effects of combat stress and post-traumatic stress disorder."
It does speak to me about the need for us to redouble our efforts in terms of dealing with the stress.
Adm. Mike Mullen,chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
"Many troops are under great psychological strain and are not receiving the treatment they need," said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and head of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America. "Much more must be done to address troops' psychological injuries before they reach a crisis point."
The death toll from the shooting at the counseling center was the highest for U.S. personnel in a single attack since April 10, when a suicide truck driver killed five American soldiers with a blast near a police headquarters in Mosul.
"Any time we lose one of our own, it affects us all," U.S. spokesman Col. John Robinson said. "Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all the service members involved in this terrible tragedy."
There have been several previous fragging incidents in the Iraq war.
In other violence, the military announced Monday that a U.S. soldier was killed a day earlier when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Basra province of southern Baghdad.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, a car bombing killed two people Monday, including a 10-year-old boy, and wounded 10 others, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said.
In Baghdad, a senior Iraqi traffic officer was assassinated on his way to work. It was the second attack on a high-ranking traffic police officer in the capital in as many days.
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Add a Comment See all 159 Comments
- I was wondering how long it would take for soldiers to finally start fragging their corporate masters asking them to kill fellow human beings to steal oil.
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- One more thing..
The military needs to stop these advertising company made recrutiment styles, where theyt make it .look like a walk in the park.. lIke a video game..
Kids join up, thinking, hey I can go to college, this will be easy..
Next thing they know, they're scraping their buddies brains out of their eyes in thew back of a humvee..
You think the army is fun? glamorous? War is a joke?
Stop recruting younmgv people with false promises and painting a picture that is not true..
The military is hard core. They teach you to kill. Kill!!
And kids are su[pposed to come back and just la-la-la- keep right on going like nothing happened???
This is serious ****** man! These kids need counseling, and more likely, many of them never should have joined thje army at all..
If there was a draft, things would be much much worse.. Imagine what they go through, and imagine if you had been stuck there AGAINST YOUR WILL.. Then people would REALLY start snapping..
Thank you military people., I dont know how you do it..
It makes me cry thinking of the young kids whose lives are destroyed for a war to get oil - Reply to this comment
- Posted by goldstarfamilysupport at 6:57 AM
Sorry for your loss ma'am
This is why it is imperative, in a peace-loving, modern, free society, that we never go to war LIGHTLY, and that we never sacrifice our children unless our very lives and country are at stake..
I dont know about the rest of you, but 911 was bad, yes, but hardly worth a decade of war in Iraq, a country having nothing to do with al qaeda, being that Iraq is almost entirely Sunni muslim.. - Reply to this comment
- I am so lost at this point.
Wait, ya need a lead singer?
Posted by gravyboat45
Yes, indeed. My brain had had a bit of saki last night - reminiscing! - Reply to this comment
- Very sad. There are no unwounded soldiers in war, and the wounds trickle back into the military, & society upon their return.
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- I am a Gold Star Mother. For those not familar that is a mother of a Fallen Soldier or someone who died while in the service of their country. When my son was killed on November 12, 2006 I thought the world had ended. No one could help me through my grief and so I started an online support group for Families of the Fallen. In this time I have come to know many across the United States and also know their loved ones and how they died. Many have been killed in war, others took their own life in desperate act, others died while active duty and still others were actually murdered.
Our military has long turned their heads to the fact that the young men and women who now join the service need counseling and not made to be afraid of seeking this counseling because of the LABELS that come with needing help. My own son came back from his first deployment in 2004 a completely different person. He saw people being killed and had buddies of his blown up in front of him or gunned down. Like so many that come back the military doesn't make it mandatory for them to get counseling. He was killed on his second deployment four months into his tour.
I talked to many who had different positions and they would have gotten couseling but knew that they couldn't continue their career. The amount of suicides in the military shows that our young men and women are equiped for what they see and endure. The long deployments without friends and family are extremely hard on them. They come home different and forever changed. I was talking to a soldier when another soldier came in with a gun in a very unstable state last year. They talked to him and then set him back out to fight. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT PICTURE.
I BEG our military officials to change THEIR THINKING AND POLICIES. It's time that we focus on those who have volunteered to service and protect our country and actually help them. WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR ONE OF YOU TO MAKE THAT CHANGE AND HELP OUR MEN AND WOMEN TODAY?
I can't imagine what this young man who had 3 tours already, was going through and I know that our PUBLIC doesn't understand. They see numbers of death and suicides and just think that's it NUMBERS. WELL it's not numbers THESE MEN AND WOMEN ARE REAL PEOPLE AND HAVE REAL FAMILIES. You don't get over the death of a child and you grieve eternally for that death. This young man needs our help and the families that are now going through another CASUALITY OF WAR needs our support. - Reply to this comment
- Arm chair soldiers oh what a great need we do not have for you. I did not survive by following the political agenda. I survived by killing evrything with lungs that was too close to my LZ. chad5555 summed it up pretty well.
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- Reading the remarks some of you posted makes me ashamed to have fought for this country, you will never understand how race,religion and yes there are a lot of bullies in the service. We may never know what made this person snap.It happens all the time,someome feels like their getting the short end or being picked on. I remember a black Muslim boxer who was a coward,refused to go in the service back in the 60's(but Elvis went),What made me think of this is the black American Muslim soldier that tossed a genade into tent klling 5 white American officers a year back in Iraq. In Vietnam it was blacks shooting whites in the back,you have danger from all dierctions.My point is diversity will destroy a society,you see it first hand in the military. WALK IN A COMBAT VETERAN'S BOOTS BEFORE YOU JUDGE THEM,PEOPLE SNAP AND LOSE THEIR MINDS IN ALL AREAS OF LIFE. YOU NEVER KNOW WHO IT MIGHT BE.THE POLICE OFFICER,YOUR NEIGHBOR,YOUR OWN FAMILY MEMBER CAN FLIP OUT. CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE AT ANY TIME. ALL THE COUNSLING IN THE WORLD WON"T HELP WHEN A PERSON DECIDEDS IT THE ONLY JUSTICE FOR THEM AND FLIPS.
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- Posted by TrooperAA at 3:57 AM : May 12, 2009
Agreed. - Reply to this comment
- In war, everyone is a victim.
Posted by excoachken at 3:51 AM : May 12, 2009
Peace provideds dividends for all, while war provides dividends for a select few..... - Reply to this comment
- To all of you who took the opportunity to leave abusive comments about the Death of 5 of our US Service Members.... You should be ashamed of Yourselves!!!!! You are the worst cowards of all!!! You are Those who strike when a bad opportunity presents itself. In the meantime why don't you join and serve as others have and are currently doing so. Oh I forgot you hide behind your freedoms given to you by the sacrifice of others. Coward A$$ Bastard$!!!!! Get a LIFE!!!!!
- Reply to this comment
- In war, everyone is a victim.
- Reply to this comment
- YOU SHOULD ALL BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES.
Posted by slimb25 at 3:39 AM : May 12, 2009
As should you for not knowing there's a CapsLock key on your keyboard..... - Reply to this comment
- ALL YOU PEOPLE ARE COMPLETLY NUTS. NONE OF YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT SOLDIERS ON THE GROUND IN THAT GOD AWFUL PLACE GO THROUGH PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY, AND EMOTIONALLY ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS. HOW DARE ALL OF YOU SIT BACK HERE AND USE THESE MENS PAIN AS A PLATFORM TO VOICE YOUR POLITICAL VIEWS. IM NOT SAYING DON'T HAVE AN OPINION. IM JUST SAYING VOICE IT SOMEWHERE ELSE. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT POLITICAL PARTY YOU SUPPORT, YOU SHOULD ALL BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES.
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- It must include mild depression and insomnia.
Posted by erb0087 at 3:24 AM : May 12, 2009
Your making light of war-induced mental illness show you not only to be callous, but an ingrate and consumate moron as well. - Reply to this comment
- According to the most recent figures, 300,000 service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have reported a mental health problem, reports Martin.
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Add that to 4,000+ warriors who were wasted, 30,000+ maimed for life and about 2 trillion dollrs of debt incurred in direct and indirect costs and you readily see why dubya was a failed businessman in the private sector.
Iraq will end up as 3 states as they are Shia, Sunni, and Kurd first - Iraqi second.
The same result could have been achieved with a single sniper round.....less than a buck. - Reply to this comment
- "According to the most recent figures, 300,000 service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have reported a mental health problem, reports Martin."
They must be using a very broad definition of "mental health problem."
It must include mild depression and insomnia. - Reply to this comment
- It really isnt that surprising. They are allowing even gang member into the military and when they come home, you better be concerned about your own neighborhoods. This isnt any different than what happens on our streets here in the US in the inner-cities every single day. If you lower the standard of who you accept into the military, this is what you get. I also have no doubt that the stresses of urban warfare are enough to make you go over the edge. Someone at the counceling center may have really made an already unstable person go over the edge with their obtuse attitude, you just really dont know, all this is, is a bare minimum of facts.
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- wanted to mention the video footage of this story i just saw on the news-made the massacre look like a video game. what a cheap, tasteless visual aide
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- American military personnel, although being responsible for innumerable crimes and many atrocities, are also victims. Especially enlisted personnel are often essentially forced into the military (via the so-called 'poverty draft' and insufficient education), then once in are systematically mistreated and abused. Unless they are totally gung-ho and/or stupid, they come to understand that they are viewed as disposable 'war toys', valuable only until wounded or killed - whereupon they are treated like s**t, and made to feel as if it's their duty to 'stop being a burden on the war machine'. If you think U.S. politicians actually give a d**n about soldiers, you're sadly mistaken. The attitude towards US soldiers held by US leaders past and present was most bluntly enunciated by war criminal Henry {born Heinz Alfred} Kissinger. 'Mr. Nobel Peace Prize' - ah, what political irony! - was quoted in "The Final Days", by Woodward and Bernstein:
" ... In Haig's presence, Kissinger referred pointedly to military men as "dumb, stupid animals to be used" as pawns for foreign policy. ..."
(http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/06/266114.shtml
"Military Men Are Dumb, Stupid Animals" )
I don't want to be an apologist for paid killers - but they are trapped, too. I'm sure that many military men & women would truly love to be free of the DoD's clutches - but they feel they can't survive on the outside, where their skill set (essentially knowledge of how to destroy/kill) is not as valued.
The U.S. military-industrial complex and the Pentagon itself must be drastically cut back. We need to cut military expenditures dramatically, and use the savings to:
start REALLY educating our young people;
make war reparations to those we've hurt in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.;
improve our environmental-protection technologies, and create more jobs beneficial to the environment;
vastly improve our social welfare infrastructure.
For a very interesting and worthwhile intro to the military-industrial complex, please read the comic book "Addicted to War", by Joel Andreas.
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On another note, there is strong reason to believe that the top brass in the Pentagon is at least partly implicated in the 9/11 attacks:
www.opednews.com/articles/Was-America-Attacked-by-Mu-by-David-Ray-Griffin-080909-536.html
Was America Attacked by Muslims on 9/11?
by David Ray Griffin
(Dr. Griffin, author of "The New Pearl Harbor", and other books, is a Christian.)
http://media.www.dailylobo.com/media/storage/paper344/news/2009/04/30/Culture/911-A.Government.Story.Full.Of.Holes-3732806.shtml
9/11: A government story full of holes
Hunter Riley
Issue date: 4/30/09
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The U.S. federal income tax is unconstitutional, and paying it is immoral. (It is illegal to contribute to a terrorist organization, and the US government & the Pentagon may be the greatest terrorist organizations of them all). Stop paying taxes - that'll definitely wake up the parasites in the Beltway!
For peace and justice,
Sam Bolivar
StrivingForJustice@yahoo.com - Reply to this comment
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