Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the man who authorities say shot two National Guardsmen outside the White House, had previously worked in a CIA-backed “Zero Unit” in Afghanistan, often called “death squads” by human rights groups.
“The United States made this person into a child soldier, and is now experiencing what I think is one of the most horrifically bright-line cases of imperial blowback that we’ve seen throughout the ‘war on terror,'” says Spencer Ackerman, journalist and author focused on U.S. military and foreign policy.
The developing brain of a 15-year-old child can’t escape, unscathed, a life of daily killings—watching them and carrying them out every day for an extended period. What he was forced to do and watch has to affect a developing child’s brain in some way. This morning there was reporting about Lakanwal’s behavior leading up to the shooting. He lived with his wife and children. Friends and relatives say he became increasingly withdrawn, isolated, sitting in a dark room alone, he stopped talking to friends and family, and someone close to him said Lakanwal’s restricted work permit made it difficult for him to find a job and he felt like a failure because he wasn’t able to provide for his family.
