On March 11, 16 villagers including 9 children, were murdered by an American staff sergeant in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province in rural, southern Afghanistan. The early reports told a horrifying story. The sergeant was part of a village stabilization operation. The team was trying to develop relationships with village leaders and help organize local policeman to search out Taliban leaders. It has been reported that the soldier is 38 years old with 11 years of service. He is married with two children and had been on three tours of duty in Iraq. The sergeant left his base, walked more than a mile, forced his way into three separate homes and went on a killing spree. He subsequently burned some of the bodies. A patrol had been dispatched to find him when he was reported missing, and apprehended him after the killings on his way back to the base. He hasn’t provided any explanations for his actions.

The massacre provoked official reaction. President Hamid Karzai called the act inhuman, intentional and demanded justice. President Obama and Secretary of Defense Panetta extended their condolences and promised a thorough investigation. President Obama, further, characterized the actions as tragic and shocking. The NATO spokesperson expressed his deep sadness.

It is feared that the massacre will set off riots and others forms of violence. Common reactions outside of Afghanistan are revulsion and puzzlement. How could such an atrocity happen?

According to Jonathan Shay, M. D., Ph.D., this type of outrageous killing by an isolated individual has been going on for thousands of years. Dr. Shay explored the subject in Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. He combines an examination of Homer’s Iliad with narratives and analysis drawn from his experiences as a psychiatrist treating veterans with chronic post- traumatic stress syndrome.

Shay’s chapter 5, “Berserk,” may help explain the current atrocities in Afghanistan committed by the staff sergeant,

Restraint is always in part the cognitive attention to multiple possibilities in a situation; when all restraint is lost, the cognitive universe is simplified to a single focus. The berserker is figuratively — sometimes literally — blind to everything but his destructive aim. He cannot see the distinction between civilian and combatant or even the distinction between comrade and enemy. One of our veterans was tied up by his own men and taken to the rear while berserk. He has no clear memory but suspects that he had become a serious threat to them.

Shay assembled a list of characteristics of the berserk state that are common to Vietnam combat veteran narratives and Homer’s Iliad. The list is as disturbing as it is long:

… beastlike; godlike; socially disconnected; crazy, mad, insane; enraged; cruel, without restraint or discrimination; insatiable; devoid of fear; inattentive to own safety; distractible; indiscriminate; reckless, feeling invulnerable; exalted, intoxicated, frenzied; cold, indifferent; insensible to pain; and suspicious of friends.

To illustrate the characteristics, Shay juxtaposes Vietnam veteran narratives with specific passages drawn from Homer.

Shay prefers to use the term berserk rather than aristeía which is frequently used by commentators on Homer. According to Shay, the origins of berserk is a Norse word which has been used to describe warriors who are seen as being frenzied, sometimes going into battle without clothes or armor and seemed to be possessed by god, but also display beast-like behaviors and fury. Some of these same characteristics are found in the Iliad in which the line is blurred between heroic behaviors and blood thirsty abuses. Was Achilles a prototype of a hero or a type of berserker?

There are, though, differences between the berserking actions of Homer’s warriors and the murderous rages of some Vietnam War soldiers. Many of the atrocities occurred after superiors urged solders to “not be sad but to get even.” This is not a characteristic of Homeric warriors. In the Iliad, berserk behavior is of shorter durations. Triggering events in the Iliad are usually much closer to the berserking behaviors. Both Homeric heroes and Vietnam soldiers share a feeling of the betrayal of “what’s right” as a conditioning element, especially as it relates to the passing of a very close brother in arms. Yet, grief alone is not a sufficient trigger. The absence of restraints seems to be an elemental trait.

Shay reflects:

On the basis of my work with Vietnam veterans, I conclude that the berserk state is ruinous, leading to the soldier’s maiming or death in battle — which is the most frequent outcome — and to life-long psychological and physiological injury if he survives. I believe that once a person has entered the berserk state, he or she is changed forever … If a soldier survives a berserk state, it imparts emotional deadness and vulnerability to explosive rage to his psychology and a permanent hyperarousal to his physiology — hallmarks of post-traumatic stress disorder in combat veterans.

In American military culture, the suppression of grief coupled with using revenge as motivation provoke berserk behavior such as that we have observed in Afghanistan, Shay strongly suggests. The prosecution of the staff sergeant who killed 16 civilians in Afghanistan will be a challenge, as will be managing the political repercussions of his monstrous actions. Is he a berserker? If so, how should the military justice system deal with him? How does his actions affect American policy in Afghanistan?

A singular atrocity shouldn’t influence national and international policies, but it appears this may be happening. President Karzai is asking for NATO forces to leave the villages and return to its bases, even though small village stabilization teams have been proven to be effective in numerous conflicts. Karzai also is suggesting that NATO forces might be exiting earlier than planned. It isn’t clear what the Afghan and NATO strategic objectives are. What is clear is that the United States’ all volunteer military has been asked to serve in combat for a decade or more, with telling consequences. Multiple deployments are taking their toll on military personnel. It is tearing them apart, and the physical, social and psychological toll on them, their families and communities is enormous. To date, PTSD has been a huge problem, but berserking has been rare and isolated. If berserking incidents increase should we blame the perpetrators, the military, or ourselves?