Crazy Kids These Days

What is going on in Afghanistan?  Army staff sergeant leaves base and kills 16 civilians.  Afghanis seeing this as a plot, but Americans saying the guy acted alone.  Irony(?) is that he was part of an operation trying to "develop close ties with village elders, organize local police units and track down Taliban leaders".  From a macro perspective, the US Government isn't doing the best job in the world in the Middle East, but the micro side (individual soldiers) isn't really helping the cause.  Burning Korans, killing civilians?