U.S. soldier who killed Afghan villagers gets life without parole

Reuters ^ | August 23, 2013 | Eric M. Johnson

[Zakeet]

An American soldier was sentenced on Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing 16 Afghan civilians in a nighttime rampage last year, an attack for which he later apologized and called an "act of cowardice."

Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, a veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has admitted to slaughtering the villagers, mostly women and children, in attacks on their family compounds in Kandahar province in March 2012.

Bales pleaded guilty to the killings in June in a deal that spared him the death penalty, and a sentencing jury of six military personnel deliberated less than two hours on Friday before deciding he should spend the rest of his life in prison.

[Snip]

Defense attorneys have said Bales carried out the killings after suffering a breakdown under the pressure of the last of his four deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. They have said he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and a brain injury even before shipping off to Kandahar province.

[KittenClaws]

Thanks, now I understand the “he was an abused child and didn’t have a father” argument in murder cases.

Funny he was one of the very few who got caught doing personal and mass murder?

simply put: You do the crime, you do time. 16, mostly women and children, in the middle of the night? Horrors of My Lai. Thank god, no rapes and torture.

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Apples and oranges.

Giving the guy a break is one thing, setting him free quite another.

Put yourself in a life threatening situation. Surrounded by enemies you are not allowed to kill. See how “social” you remain.

I happen to think Faluja should have been burned to the ground. Every man, woman, child, animal and insect. Sue me.

[cherry]

if there were no war, this guy would be home working and raising his family....

but we put these people over there, under miserable conditions , and expect them to behave like gentlemen....

war is hell

[cherry]

I see your meaning.....but still....women and children?.....have we come to that?