Afghanistan massacre suspect named as Sgt Robert Bales

BBC ^ | 16MAR12 | N/A

[Future Snake Eater]

Senior US officials told the BBC the name of the suspect as he was heading back to the US to face charges. He is being flown to Fort Leavenworth, in Kansas, from Kuwait. His lawyer, John Henry Browne, said on Thursday that the suspect was a 38-year-old man who had been injured twice while serving in Iraq. He also said the accused had witnessed his friend's leg blown off the day before the killings. That incident has not been confirmed by the US Army. The Taliban called off peace talks in the wake of Sunday's deadly rampage - in which men, women and children were shot and killed at close range. The US has stressed it remained committed to Afghan reconciliation. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has also reacted angrily to the killings. He told the US it must pull back its troops from village areas and allow Afghan security forces to take the lead in an effort to reduce civilian deaths. On Friday he said the US was not fully co-operating with a probe into the killings.

[Absolutely Nobama]

I think it would be best if we commented on this through FRmail. I don’t want to get Future Snake Eater in trouble.

[Bronzy]

>>If it was up to me I would reinstate the draft.<<

Most of the people I hear saying that are libs wanting our government leader's sons and daughters drafted. We do have leaders who have children serving. You just don't hear about them.

[When do we get liberated?]

We could never have the multiple deployment problem again if we stay out of multi-decade wars with no actual goal to win.
That said I can apppreciate his service, but there is no mitigating circumstance fro murdering 16 people including 9 children.

[robowombat]

Respectfully;
Sgt. Or Ssgt Bales seems, from the bits reported of his carreer, to have suffered more than the usual soldier's burden for the Republic. Having a severe concussive injury is enough to produce some very bad effects long after the event if the injured party is exposed to a protracted period of extreme stress. It has been reported that this soldier tried to not be deployed for the forth time citing unresolved stress but that this was dismissed by the Army psychological/medical types. Shame upon those who have exposed the combat forces until so many are on the verge of collapse or will bear the psychological scars for the rest of their lives.

[rlferny]

Yes the Army does prescribe Anti depressants for PTSD. I had a friend go through this in Afghanistan. Was an NCO, stepped on a pressure plate that fatally wounded 2 others and he was messed up. First thing they do is prescribe anti-depressants. by the way - this was his 3rd deployment. 1 to Iraq and 2nd time in Afghanistan.

[rlferny]

Yes the Army does prescribe Anti depressants for PTSD. I had a friend go through this in Afghanistan. Was an NCO, stepped on a pressure plate that fatally wounded 2 others and he was messed up. First thing they do is prescribe anti-depressants. by the way - this was his 3rd deployment. 1 to Iraq and 2nd time in Afghanistan.

[Steve Newton]

I thank you for our wounded, ill, injured and dying. The SSFOA leaves no one behind. Even the dying. Prayer Blankets from the Chaplains for our hospice vets.

Its a good organization

Thank you my FRiend

[QT3.14]

...fighting with their hands tied behind their backs compliments of the socialist turncoat in the Oval Office.

Sounds like Vietnam....SOP.

[dfwgator]

The human mind is capable of only so much carnage before undesirable results surface. One of the first is PTSD. You can not get over PTSD in weeks, months, or in some cases a few years. No pill can really stop it as it is a decompressing of sorts of looking at events and putting them where they belong. Re-injury during this process compounds it. That is true no matter what circumstances lead up too PTSD.

Whenever I see the term PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, I am reminded of a rant by the late George Carlin, who while, was a lefty, identified one of the things that has also been a sore spot for me, the watering down of the language over time:

"I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Cause Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent the kind of a soft language to protest themselves from it, and it gets worse with every generation. For some reason, it just keeps getting worse. I'll give you an example of that. There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum. Can't take anymore input. The nervous system has either (click) snapped or is about to snap. In the first world war, that condition was called 'Shell Shock.' Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables, 'shell shock'. Almost sounds like the guns themselves. That was seventy years ago.

Then a whole generation went by and the Second World War came along and very same combat condition was called 'battle fatigue.' Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to hurt as much. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell shock! -- Battle fatigue.

Then we had the war in Korea, 1950. Madison Avenue was riding high by that time, and the very same combat condition was called 'Operational Exhaustion.' Hey, were up to eight syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase. It's totally sterile now. Operational exhaustion. Sounds like something that might happen to your car.

Then of course, came the war in Viet Nam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years, and thanks to the lies and deceits surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Still eight syllables, but we've added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I'll bet you if we'd of still been calling it 'shell shock', some of those Viet Nam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I'll betcha. I'll betcha."

I would add to Carlin's observation, that now we don't even say the eight syllables, we've got it down now to a four-letter acronym: PTSD.

[azishot]

Thank you for your service and for taking the time to share this with us. I’ll keep him and his family in my prayers.

[Irenic]

I don’t know if this helps, but I think there is something to Afghanistan, China, Minerals.

Drugs come into it, too but that is more Soros, in my opinion (or whatever others). I’m sure Soros stands to make money from it somehow...
**************************************************

Soros and drug legalization:

A few billionaires—not broad grassroots support—started and sustain the medical”marijuana and drug legalization movements in the United States.Without their money and influence, the drug legalization movement would shrivel. According to National Families in Action, four individuals– George Soros, Peter Lewis, George Zimmer and John Sperling – contributed $1,510,000 to the effort to pass a “medical” marijuana law in California in 1996, a sum representing nearly 60
per cent of the total contributions.

In 2000, The New York Times interviewed Ethan Nadelmann, Director of the Lindesmith Center. Responding to criticism that the medical marijuana issue is a stalking horse for drug legalization, Mr.Nadelmann stated: “Will it help lead toward marijuana legalization?. . . I hope so.”

Heroin Works Better Than Methadone, So Why Won’t Politicians Allow It?
Mar 12, 2012 3:31 PM EDT
Yet another study shows it’s both cheaper and more effective to treat heroin addicts with heroin itself, instead of methadone. Jesse Singal on why politicians still won’t accept it.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/12/heroin-works-better-than-methadone-so-why-won-t-politicians-allow-it.html
***************************************************

China interests in Afghanistan: By the end of 2006, China and Afghanistan had signed contracts worth $141.82 million. The pace of that investment has accelerated in recent years.

In 2007, ZTE and Huawei, both Chinese telecom companies, signed contracts for technology upgrades and mobile devices worth $10 million with an Afghan telecom company.

Attracting the most attention lately, though, has been a project that State-owned Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) set up with the Jiangxi Copper Company. The two firms plan to spend $4.39 billion to tap one of the biggest copper mines in Afghanistan through a joint venture, MCC-JCL Aynak Minerals. It is the largest pledge of foreign direct investment in Afghanistan.

Work on the mine has not begun yet. Even so, the project has been listed in the Afghanistan Ministry of Finance’s draft budget statement for 2011 as one of three sources of revenue for national development, alongside “domestic revenue” and “donor grants”.

usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-09/21/content_13745143.htm

And yes, China has been depending on US for security.

[Chgogal]

Thank you so much for your service. Many of us are very grateful for your service to this country.

I don't want a draft BUT I do want a much larger Military (fighting 3 fronts at the same time for 5 years with one year rotation). This would be at the expense of the dead weights on Medicaid, Food Stamps, Free Contraceptives, Free Phones, and HUD. While we are at it shut down Department of Education, Environmental Protection Agency, Energy Department, Department of Agriculture, etc.

I will not comment on Sgt Robert Bales' situation. Whatever happened, Sgt Bales was reacting to cumulative events perpetrated to him and his comrades in arms by the Muslim enemy over the past 10 years with minimum support from this country.

My prayers for Sgt Bales, his family and all his comrades in arms. A-stan just got much more complicated and I don't have faith in our leaders to improve the situation for our Troops and our country.

[DustyMoment]

At the risk of insulting you, have you ever been to war? I’m going to jump out in front and assume that you have, so you have probably seen some pretty terrible things, just as I have.

I remember when I was going through SERE school as part of my aircrew training. We were taught a lot of survival skills and spent the last 24 hours of the school in a simulated POW camp. Simulated. 24 hours. I was shocked by the number of guys who “broke” during “interogation” by the camp guards (school instructors).

Months later, I realized that what we had experienced was kindergarten compared to what a week in the Hanoi Hilton would have been like. And, yet, guys broke and we were in the state of California with no one shooting at us!

I don’t condone what SSgt. Bales did, but I also can’t and won’t hold him solely responsible. As I said before, I hold his superiors as much or more responsible for sending a man who had suffered a brain injury back into a war zone on his 4th deployment. We all have our breaking points and I believe that SSgt. Bales hit his.

What happened to those civilians should not be completely heaped on him, even though he alledgedly acted alone. There’s PLENTY of blame to be handed out in Washington!!

[cva66snipe]

Yes the Army does prescribe Anti depressants for PTSD. I had a friend go through this in Afghanistan. Was an NCO, stepped on a pressure plate that fatally wounded 2 others and he was messed up. First thing they do is prescribe anti-depressants. by the way - this was his 3rd deployment. 1 to Iraq and 2nd time in Afghanistan.

If he was in the hospital being treated with them that's one thing. If he was with his unit taking them that should be stopped. There is the very real possibility of an adverse reaction called Serotonin Syndrome. Serotonin is a chemical of which 98% is in the stomach for digestion. Antidepressants can cause it to migrate to the brain. When this happens it is like LSD in the havoc it creates in the mind.

This is not Junk Science it is proves long time known medical fact. Also a person lets saw taking Zoloft develops a sinus allergy or head cold and takes something like Nyquil with an antidepressant that too can trigger it.

[TankerKC]

PTSD is a horrible thing. My last combat exposure was five years ago and I still drop whenever a sudden noise occurs; God help the Sargeant. OIF vet

"Sergeant" is the way we spell it. Forty-three years in the military? You were saying...

[cva66snipe]

Shell Shock is likely not the same thing as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They most likely have very differing causes but simular symptoms. I have had both and still have what some would call shell shock had I been in combat. The PTSD I managed to get over only after 5 years of therapy. No I do not claim that part of it to my military service. That was due to some bad events that happened in my life for 10 year after I got out.

Shell Shock? That part I do say my service had somewhat to do with. I worked in very loud machinery spaces and continues the same after I got out of the service. I was also exposed to 155MM Full Battery Fire about 50 ft from the guns with ears unprotected. This wasn't the impact but rather the firing I heard. I was asleep in the back of the 5 ton when the fire mission went off.

What is seen as Shell shock? An over reaction mainly too loud sudden noises? Usually associated with Artillery Units. The person hears a certain frequency noise and reacts. That is actually more likely Neurological Damage to the Vestibular System including Inner Ear and Ear Drums.

This can and it will trigger what is commonly called Panic or Anxiety Attacks. The body has a bad startle reflex too the events it can not handle. So how would I know? LOL Well the same time the PTSD hit me the other did as well. Certain noises, tones at certain frequencies would put me literally into seizures. "The Jerk" as one poster in here calls them is the brains response to an exaggerated by the Vestibular System Sensory Impulse. It is very real. It is also likely the most common reason for non phobic panic but rather sensory induced as in auditory induced panic attacks.

The reason this was not as such an issue before except in places like combat units is several factors one of which is technology. Or sense are bombarded literally everywhere we go. You actually could even have a touch of it and not realize it.

It does tend to hit persons though who as kids had sinus allergies, ear infections, etc where damage to the Vestibular System occurred. Vestibular Scientist or researchers are starting to put the pieces together and figure out that this is often mistaken in kids as ADD ADHD. The good new s is these kids and adults do not need Ritalin to treat it.

I know the truth of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I write the letters PTSD because on many forms such as Medical History it takes less space in an already limited place to list disorders. I also write G.A.D. which means General Anxiety Disorder. The doctor knows the abbreviations.

[cva66snipe]

You might want too read Post #177. You could have something else triggering it also.

[Dengar01]

Whoever released this man's name is a traitor to the United States of America.

We are fighting thugs who don't abide by the Geneva Convention. This man's family, friends, neighbors, ect... will now become targets for sleepers.

Yeah, he may be safe in Leavenworth but I guarantee his family, friends, and co-workers aren't given the same protection.

In my opinion, this is an impeachable offense. Eric Holder, Leon Panneta and Barack Obama should all be charged for treason! This isn't a BJ in the Oval Office, this is putting American citizens on a hit list.

Meanwhile, Holder will keep on pestering NYPD to quit stopping terrorist attacks.

We need to quit the in fighting. Obama needs to be defeated. This guy wants our troops dead, never forget the Navy Seals murdered in that helicopter that all military experts state they never should have been on.

Under the Constitution Zero would be immediately arrested by the Secret Service along with his crooked Attorney General and they would be put on trial from treason against the USA.

[Yorlik803]

People should live by “Dont judge a man til you walked a mile in his shoes”.
I doubt the real truth will ever be told by this regime about this. They will lie,cheat and steal on a epic level to conceal the truth.
Military people beware: You have no friends with this admin.