An American soldier is accused of going on a deadly shooting rampage in Afghanistan, killing 16 civilians. Officials are now going through his records, trying to determine what could have driven the 38-year-old staff sergeant to kill.
The soldier has not yet been publicly identified, but his family in the U.S. has been made aware of his accused actions.
ABC News has learned he is a married father of two, who has been based for most of his military career at Ft. Lewis, Washington.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed her condolences for the attack, but the Obama administration's apologies and promises of swift justice have done little to douse the anger among the people in Afghanistan, where tensions have been simmering for months.
In this country, support for the war remains low. An ABC News poll taken before the shooting found 60 percent of Americans say the war is not worth fighting and 54 percent say the U.S. should withdraw at once.
Katherine Jenerette of North Myrtle Beach is a captain in the U.S. Army Reserves, who recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, in the same Panjwai region as the attack on civilians.
She said the U.S. went into Afghanistan for the right reasons, after the 9-11 terrorist attacks and it's in our nation's vital interests to stay. "To me, if we leave, who's in their back door? China, Russia? We've paved the way for them to come in and take over."
Jenerette said, the U.S. now has to apologize for the attack on civilians, go into repair mode and try to win over the hearts and minds of the Afghan people, most of whom, she says, want us to stay. It is a complicated mess, she said, but we can't leave now.
"At the end of all this, how do we go to that veteran's mother who died over there and say this was all for naught?" Jenerette asked.
Jenerette said most people in Afghanistan are good people, who want what we want - to send their kids to school and to live better lives.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. James Vaught of Conway disagrees with staying in Afghanistan. He said the U.S. has no vital interests in the country and the people there don't like us.
"We don't need to stay over there one more damned day. We should have left yesterday," Vaught said.
Vaught said U.S. forces should have pulled out of Afghanistan years ago, as soon as the Taliban was defeated. "Americans don't like long wars. In fact, they don't like wars at all."
Eli Corey of Myrtle Beach is a military veteran and has a daughter who served in Afghanistan. He doesn't think the U.S. can pack up and leave right now. But whether we stay in Afghanistan or go, he said the Americans who are over there, need to be the ones running the war.
"I don't think policy should be made right here in the United States by people who don't know what's going on over there," Corey said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
