TACOMA, Wash., Oct. 17 (UPI) -- The commanding officer of a Stryker Brigade whose soldiers allegedly murdered Afghan civilians did not cause the war crimes, an investigation has found .
The (Tacoma, Wash.) News-Tribune reported an Army investigation found no evidence Col. Harry Tunnell caused five soldiers under his command to allegedly murder Afghan civilians from January to May 2010 in a district northwest of the colonel's headquarters in Kandahar.
But the Army found Tunnell's refusal to embrace military strategy led to confusion in his top ranks, frustrating commanders in the United States and abroad, and disagreements almost cost him his job as a combat leader in Afghanistan twice.
Tunnell's disagreements with Army leaders have led to questions about whether he fostered a climate that was overly aggressive and enabled the killing of noncombatants, The News-Tribune said.
Related
Brig. Gen. Stephen Twitty said in an investigation obtained by the newspaper while the Army found no evidence Tunnell's behavior caused the war crimes, he should not be placed in a combat command because of the lack of maturity he displayed in disagreements with NATO leaders in Afghanistan.
Tunnell is serving in an administrative post at Fort Knox, Ky.
The 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division he headed has become the 2nd Brigade, based south of Tacoma, and is training for a deployment that hasn't been announced, while its motto has been changed from "Strike -- Destroy" to "Seize the High Ground."
When he spoke with Twitty, Tunnell criticized his British commander in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, for "a cavalier attitude toward the lives of his subordinates, particularly due to his emphasis on 'courageous restraint' whereby he directed that our soldiers assume extreme risk in order to prevent any civilian casualties."
And Tunnell called the U.S. Army's counterinsurgency strategy a "colonial approach" devised by academics and European powers lacking military experience, The News-Tribune said. Instead, he preferred counter-guerrilla warfare, with an emphasis on neutralizing the enemy.
