It might have just been the hangover.

I guess you have been to war genius?

Yea. It's not like he killed a chicken.

Seven- I dont care if he has PTSD. He murdered WOMEN and CHILDREN. If he is that mentally unstable he shouldn't be aloud to walk this earth any more. His actions have caused more issues for everyone forward deployed and put many more US and AFGN lives in danger. He needs to be put to death for his crimes. We in the military have responsibilities that other americans don't.

I don't see any difference in a soldier shooting innocent people in a war zone, and the President, CIA, and military generals using a drone fired missile to kill a person on a CIA hit list and in the process killing dozens of innocent people in the impact area of the missile.

Both actions are really dumb foreign policy and both will drive the nation in which this occurs away from the US and the goals the US is trying to accomplish. It makes no difference who pulls the trigger and kills innocent civilians. Civilians are now dead and our foreign policy is producing negative and very costly results.

He didn't just kill women and children he got other killed. Now he has children that don't deserve to hear or read what some of you are posting. Let our courts deal with this and please be mindful of the ones you hurt. God look over those he harmed and killed.

Nope. Kill this animal and stop justifying MURDER because he was a soldier. He was a top soldier all right. He was the best frikking MURDERER ever over there....

PTSD is when you go through a divorce. This is INSANITY and arrogance at its worst.

KILL HIM.

Glenn- we are speaking about a man that walked out of a compound and smoked women and children for no reason at all. An air strike on a target that is so dangerous that a few civilian casualties are way less then the possibilty of deaths if the target is left alive is totally different.

Confussed- His children should know exactly what thier father did. He is a murderous bastard and his actions still are causing issues. I say hang him

The US trains our soldiers to fight and kill. Its what they're trained to do. Our government is to blame for sending this soldier on 4 tours of duty in war zones. A person can not mentally handle that kind of experience and pressure. We need to get the hell out of the wars we have gotten ourselves into and stop sending these military men and women to go deal with these things. As horrible as this whole thing is, I truly feel horrible for Sgt Bales. Anyone in any similiar situation and enviroment as he was constantly put into, would have reacted the same way.

"Anyone in any similiar situation and enviroment as he was constantly put into, would have reacted the same way."

You couldn't be further from the truth. If this were true almost everyone in the military would be murders.

NJK85, stop saying all the things I want to post :(

PTSD is a lousy excuse, multiple deployments is a lousy excuse and saying anyone in his situation and environment would have reacted the same way (brittany32) might be the DUMBEST thing I have read/heard in a very very long time.

RiverBoy- Sorry but B32 has no clue what she is talking about. I am on my 5th combat deployment right now and was here when that jackass committed this horrible act. I have suffered from PTSD after my first couple tours in Iraq. Nightmares, insomnia, visions. I am still very on edge in large crowds.

While I agree with the cold-blooded murder part, if it is proved he is not mentally competent or was under temporary insanity, I advocate for his being given life instead of death. If, as the article indicates he is truly remorseful, spending the rest of his life in Leavenworth will give him plenty of time to remember what he did. Living with this the rest of his life is a much more fitting punishment, to me.

At any rate, this will not be for us to decide but the court martial, and I'll abide by their decision. eventually the Great Equalizer, the one who makes no mistakes, will catch up with him and then he will get whatever he deserves, apart and aside from any flawed human agency.

I'm on the fence. Didn't want to throw in God because some people jump all over that and then the discussion seems to slide into God vs. Evolution almost every stinking time....good points all, Amanda.

Because oboy is in office. They should get around to it in 2016 if he doesn't pardon him.

I guess there are two set of rules for Officers and Enlisted ; I don't condone this behaviour and I won't point the finger! If there is a double standard then there is no Standard!

for NAM Vet from another Nam Vet- please go back under your rock until 2016

If there is a delay in the FT. Hood trial, it's merely propaganda to keep Americans agitated as the USA's Afghan occupation adventure continues to fade in importance from Western news media and US politicians' yammerings.

Hey Norm, the "slime" did FOUR tours of duty in a combat zone. That's forty-eight (+/-) months of experiencing the worst of man's inhumanity to man. If he is guilty of this, the four tours should not exonerate him. But they certainly could provide a reason to extend some small bit of leniency.

We have subjected these soldiers to the kinds of stress that that vast majority cannot even imagine. Far too many are returning home, especially after multiple tours, with psychological trauma that will haunt them the rest of their lives. I agree with ddoughtyjd- this does not excuse what he did but it must be taken into account when deciding punishment.

Then get our troops the hell out of the Middle East and keep them out.

His tours of duty are irrelevant. If he has PSTD, that is irrelevant too. US soldiers are the finest in the world and do not take weapons we put in their hands and murder innocent people, alot of women and children if you remember. Any one of them that do should be held accountable and punished accordingly. This POS took children from parents, wives from husbands and destroyed countless families for no purpose and no value was added in doing so. These were everyday Afgans. They weren't terrorists, Taliban or even a remote threat to anyone. None of them even had weapons for crying out loud....not even the first pistol. If we want our military to maintain moral superiority within its ranks sludge like this must get what they deserve. I can't believe some of the half baked excuses for this soldiers actions I read here, though I am not entirely surprised.

Troy,

There's an old addage in the retail trades: you break it, you bought it. By all the various accounts that I've read since this story first came to light, SGT Bales was a good soldier prior to the events of the evening in question. At some point over the years, something changed that. I may be wrong here but, to me, the logical conclusion would be something he experienced during combat caused that change. If this assumption is correct, we, as a society, through our duly elected officials, put him in that situation. In other words, again assuming my hypothesis above is accurate, we broke him. To turn our backs on him now would be an absolute travesty.

That said, I never said his actions are excusable. As someone who assisted with prosecutions in the military for most of my 8-year military career, I wholeheartedly agree he needs to be punished for his actions if he is found guilty. My original comment was simply a reaction to a suggesstion that we should turn SGT Bales over to the Afghans so his head could be chopped off.

We are breaking them left and right aren't we d? I certainly agree with that. The fact that this guy went after innocent women and children is the part that infuriates me. I don't think I would be as angry if he stormed a nest of terrorists and went down in a blaze of glory. Your thoughts, all good, bring questions to mind like; How can we as civilians have more of an impact in "fixing" what we break? How can we better identify soldiers who have simply done and seen too much? How does our military train our soldiers to better handle the blood guts and gore that is combat?....etc...I could go on... I love our military and hold it in the highest regards so when I hear and see things like rogue soldiers randomly killing innocents, special forces urinating on a kill, and SS flags proudly flying (and that is exactly what that flag was, you will never convience me otherwise) it sort of pisses me off. The world needs to know that we do not operate like this. The only way to show that we are a morally superior fighting force on the side of good is to eliminate this behavior. Any thoughts on how we should move forward in this area as a nation?

Troy,

A kid I trained and worked for me up until he deployed to Iraq came back after 3 tours, he wasn't the same, road rage from hell, etc. On the other hand I did one out of the country tour with live fire and was back in a couple of weeks and spent the rest of my time jockeying minute man missles, so I can only imagine exactly what they are seeing fully.

Yes it is an embarrassment for the military to be having these kinds of breakdowns but we gotta figure out how to fix these guys for real and to stop it from happening. This is what happens when fighting men are told they are cops in a land that they could give two shi#s about and who every flipping day live with getting fired upon. For you and norm who don't seem to have served, you might ease up and get all the facts first and with all due respect STFU. Hooah!

Now you know I'm not going to STFU Tracy. This guy is a baby killer. He deserves what is coming to him.

That said this whole story has raised questions in my mind about how we can help our soldiers as civilians. I suppose from your perspective we should stop policing the world?....sounds good to me if it gets our soldiers out of harms way.

You and I will have to agree to disagree on this one. You know I absolutely don't condone the act Troy but I have seen it first hand, it is different than anything I have ever dealt with, maybe STFU was harsh, but you really really gotta be there. On the other hand, if the guy isn't really PTSD and using it for an excuse, BBQ him!

If we are getting acurate information, it wasn't like he went berzerk and just started killing children and women. He planned the whole thing out. If he was capable of that then he was in his right mind.

I see it from your perspective though Tracy. I trust the judgement of one who has been there.

The statements I have made are statements I would make about any person anywhere on this planet. I view children as sacred and innocent and I honestly have to supress a blind hatred for people who would harm them.

I would absolutely agree on the children and women, but I also try to look at it pragmatically. Even though I am just a dumb old hillbilly.

lol. I just wish we could read the signs and get these people out of combat before they go rouge in all honesty.

You and me both. Problem is, some of these guys are professional tough guys. They aren't going to bend (show signs) one damn bit until they break and when they break it can manifest in many different fashions. Literally anything is possible from curled up in a corner, sucking thumb and sobbing uncontrollably to an unholy monster straight from hell.

I honestly don't get how someones brain can get that out of control, but it seems to happen. Unless there are just more people getting better at playing they system for a handout. Like I said, if I find out that bales is a handouter, I will gladly eat my words and scream guilty, guilty guilty myself.

BTW, I didn't respond to the planned attack thing, but yes, if it was pre-meditated, then it is simply murder. Problem is, there is testimony that goes both ways on that.

Sorry for the delay in responding. Long day at work.

I agree Troy, we are bringing home WAY too many servicemembers in worse condition than what they were in when we sent them overseas. How can we as civilians have more of an impact in "fixing" what we break? Great question. I think the first step is going back to the Powell Doctrine. Don't commit the military to an action without giving them a clear cut mission, sending them in with the means to accomplish it and setting at the outset a clear exit strategy. I believe we were absolutely correct going into Afghanistan after 9/11. The Taliban government was allowing al-Qaeda to operate training bases in country and that had to stop. We very easily could have toppled the Taliban government, routed out the training bases and then redeployed back to our initial staging areas with a warning to whomever took over the government that just as quickly as we unleashed hellfire on them the first time, we can and will do it again if we determine the new government is harboring enemies of the United States (including OBL). There was no reason we should have had American troops in Afghanistan for over a decade. That's not their mission. If you want to build-nations, send in the State Department.

You bring up some other good questions as well. "How can we better identify soldiers who have simply done and seen too much" and "how does our military train our soldiers to better handle the blood guts and gore that is combat?" Regarding the former, I wish I could speak intelligently on that one. Unfortunately, I can't. Maybe someone with some expertise will offer an opinion. As for the latter though, I think that can be addressed naturally through the decreased need for warfighters that will result from bringing our kids home. With the need for fewer soliders, sailors, airmen and marines, recruiters can be more selective in who gets admitted in the first place. Then the Drill Instructors can, hopefully, go back to actually providing tough, realistic STRESSFUL training that will cause those who can't handle the stress of combat to be identified and weeded out before they are ever faced with the realities of war.

If you noticed, the number of suicides in the military has been on the rise over the last several years. I think this can be at least partially explained by the style of training that has been in place since the early to mid 1990s. Around that timeframe, basic training in the Army shifted to more of a touchy feely everyone graduates kind of program. For a while, "Stress Cards" were issued and, if a recruit felt he was being unduly put upon by a Drill Sergeant, he had only to whip out the card and, boom, instant peace and tranquility for a given amount of time. I went through basic when things were a bit more physical (ahem!) but I knew several Drill Sergeants that were actually were punished and taken off of training duty because they refused to follow the new guidelines coming down from Training and Doctrine Command. I remember one stating he would not be responsible for sending troops out into deployable units who were not ready to face the rigours of combat.

As for "moral superiority" on the battlefield, as much as we would like to believe otherwise, war is not civilized. Morals are great things to adhere to in the real world but, to quote one of my old bosses, in combat, they're more like guidelines than hard and fast rules." Further, to try and impose a standard of conduct that works in civilized society on those who are simply trying to survive day-to-day in a combat environment is to invite disaster. Navy LT Mike Murphy comes to mind. While leading his SEALs in Afghanistan, his team was discovered by a couple of shepherds. He made the moral decision and let them continue on their way, all the while strongly suspecting they would tell the Taliban of the team's location at the first opportunity. Sure enough, within hours, the team came under fire and LT Murphy ended up being awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.

Did he make the "right" decision? Did his men think so? Did the Special Operators who were killed when the helicopter that they were flying or riding in during the mission to rescue LT Murphy's team think so? What about the family members of all of these men? Would they rather a different decision had been made at the initial meeting so that they, the family members, could spend more time with their lost loved ones? Hollywood screenwriters have the luxury of mixing morality and warfare without giving it a second thought. Warfighters on the ground, on the other hand, have to live with the consequences (or die as a consequence) of their decisions and actions.

Although I've never met the man, from all that I've read, I believe that SGT Bales was once the "kid next door." Then he went to war. Then he went to war again. And again. And again. My own wartime experience was short-lived and a long time ago, and yet I still wake up sometimes to visions that I would prefer remained buried. SGT Bales' war experiences were undoubtedly infinitely more pronounced and traumatic. And if he did these horrendous atrocities, I have to believe that his ability to do them only developed after he was exposed to seriously unspeakable horrors. I cannot believe he was in his right mind when they were done.

The military today has taken a large step in helping its members with issues that a raise from deployments. We have different types of courses we take quarterly an annually. We receive free counciling not only for ourselves but our famliy to help us. Getting help is easier then its ever been, not only because of all the resources but because most military members can relate to one another. One of the biggest things that helped me was when I became an instructor for the USMC's Suicide Prevention Program. I fell into that dark hole myself and climbed my way out with the help of my fellow Marines and family. Then as a instructor I had first hand knowlege and by sharing my down fall I got others to open up.

We have no SOFA with that nation will never happen and should not happen!

That "nation" of which you write is just currently a US puppet gov't that only really exists around Kabul and US bases.

Well said, Don.