Charlie Rose

Gelles  03/22/2012 07:53 AM Report

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was arrested last week for allegedly killing 16 men, women and children in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Nobody wants a recurrence of such killings or even worse.

I believe there may be a bona fide defense of Sgt. Bales on grounds of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and even more damage that he sufferd in combat that deprived him of all capacity to know what he did when it happened.

If these women and children were killed like those in Dresden or Hiroshima died in 1945, no warriors or their leaders were convicted for the events.

If, however, our leaders are afraid of acquitting Sgt. Bales because angry or political people in Afghanistan will exact vengeance on Americans, and, therefore, the trial of Bales is compromised, I will be ashamed.

If the facts prove Bales is innocent, which seems likely, he should be acquitted. America will pay the surviving families what we pay fo other unintended death.

There is some obvious problem when we fight wars with too few warriors. The army has already spoken this truth.

As to leaving Afghanistan because it's too tough a nut to crack, that should not be done without agreement by our military leaders and their civilian chiefs. That is a matter I would leave to people as experienced and wise and Panetta and his professional military line and staff. I include Obama among them. But if I were him, I would listen to many before deciding to retreat. I might even decide on a solution that kept foreign troops in Afghanistan for as long as I was President.

After that, under our highest law, a new decider will decide and a new treaty may have to be obeyed.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  03/20/2012 05:45 PM Report

'Less than one half of 1% of Americans have served. Just keep cycling them.'

So we are having a war yet nobody wants to come. The people have spoken don't you think?

The complex of military and industry needs to get those robots out the door.

Sounds like once a warrior always a warrior.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  03/20/2012 05:37 PM Report

Sounds like the military creating their own My Lai Massacre--good thing it was one guy this time instead of 26.

“The family was counting on him not being redeployed,” Mr. Browne said. “He and the family were told that his tours in the Middle East were over.”

He added, “I think that it would be fair to say that he and the family were not happy that he was going back.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/world/asia/afghan-shooting-suspect-identified-as-army-staff-sgt-rob ert-bales.html?hpw

REMant  03/20/2012 12:16 PM Report

Three or four deployments in the space of a 8-10 yrs or less especially in combat situations such as these is more than we asked during Vietnam, more than WWI, Korea and even WWII during which most were not in combat continuously, and could see progress being made when they were.

That said, there seems a great deal being reported about this incident that doesn't add up. The Post led its story by alleging that this man was in financial trouble due to the time overseas. His home was being foreclosed. That may be true if he relied on moonlighting, but he was not in the guard or reserves and should have been receiving compensatory pay and benefits, and there is a much better family support network than there used to be. It makes little sense either to be calling this a precipitant action, when he was allegedly discovered sneaking back to base. It is being reported, too, that he was a stockbroker before signing up, but if he were, I'd think he must then be a college graduate, and if so, would have sought a commission. Then, too, despite being decorated for bravery, he was nevertheless denied promotion, which can only indicate a temper different from what is being claimed. There are many instances of such persons being passed over. On top of this the Afghans alleged that he did not, could not have done this alone anyway due to factors of time and space. And all of a sudden it is being claimed he suffers from amnesia.