President Barack Obama has yet to say anything publicly about the death of Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, the first American general killed in war since Vietnam.
Greene is believed to have died Tuesday after a man in an Afghanistan military uniform shot Greene and 14 others in an attack near Kabul.
Since his death, U.S. political figures have spoken publicly about the attack.
“I’m deeply saddened by the coldblooded killing of an American hero today,” Senate majority leader Harry Reid said.
“General Greene was a good man, a great leader and a mentor to me and all who knew him,” said former Sen. Scott Brown, who knew Greene. “His death is a reminder that conditions remain very tenuous in Afghanistan, and that the Taliban has sympathizers everywhere and still poses a very real threat.”
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest discussed the attack, saying: “The thoughts and prayers of those of us here at the White House are with the family of the general, are with the soldiers and the family of those who were injured in this attack.”
But Obama himself has still not commented on the attack.
Citing a“national security source,” CNN’s Jake Tapper reported Wednesday that “the administration does not like to signal that the particular rank of a casualty merits a different response – every loss of life is equally tragic; every sacrifice is equally heartbreaking.”
“The source notes that President Obama has tended to go out to comment on military losses based more on when the U.S. loses a significant number of our troops – as when the helicopter was downed in the summer of 2011,” Tapper reported.
The 55-year-old Greene was serving in Afghanistan as the deputy commanding general of Combined Security Transition Command.