Posted on 03/19/2012 4:15:37 PM PDT by xzins
Karilyn Bales, whose husband, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is accused of killing Afghan civilians, released this statement on Monday:
What happened on the night of March 11 in Kandahar Province was a terrible and heartbreaking tragedy.
My family including my and Bob’s extended families are all profoundly sad. We extend our condolences to all the people of the Panjawai District, our hearts go out to all of them, especially to the parents, brothers, sisters and grandparents of the children who perished.
I know that all good people around the world, regardless of nationality, religion or political values, join me in grieving that such a terrible thing could happen.
Our family has little information beyond what we read and see in the media. What has been reported is completely out of character of the man I know and admire. Please respect me when I say I cannot shed any light on what happened that night, so please do not ask.
I too want to know what happened. I want to know how this could be.
I have no indication that my family’s own safety is at risk, but I appreciate the efforts that have been undertaken to protect us. I hope there will soon be no reason for protection of families, whether here or in Kandahar Province, or anywhere, because the pain inevitably inflicted in war should never be an excuse to inflict yet more pain. The cycle must be broken. We must find peace.
I know the media has a right to pursue and report news. As you do your jobs, I plead with you to respect the trauma that I and my extended family are experiencing. Please allow us some peace and time as we try to make sense of something that makes no sense at all.
All I can do now is emphasize my sadness and my condolences to the families in Panjawai for their terrible loss. The victims and their families are all in my prayers, as is my husband who I love very much.
End of Statement
Yes. You are correct. It WAS the other guy.
In the same vein, SOMEBODY HAS TO GO TO JAIL...
on the otherhand...
SGT. BALES for POTUS. He just beat them at their own game.
That is unbelievably shameful. The movers should have called the cops the second that happened. My heart aches for Kari.
Since I work in the field I do have some first handle knowledge of the protocol.
No one is suggesting Bales ever had any money, just that he had a $1.4 million dollar judgement that unsurprisingly was not paid. In and of itself, it means nothing, but I suspect the glowing accounts of Sgt. Bales may have a flip side.
Do we know that this story has been
corroborated by more than one source ?
Funny, you didn’t need a timeline with Condit.
If he did this deed, and we hope he did not, he needs to be sentenced appropriately.
I have no idea what you're referring to. Perhaps you're confusing me with someone else.
I will weigh the good and the bad about Robert Bales. Some here pretend he was a flawless soldier.
This, as his attorney reportedly weighs a “bad apple soldier” defense which would lay out that he was not qualified to serve as a soldier who had been vetted.
Regardless, sadly Sgt. Bales will not see a free life for a long time, if ever.
Peace be on his soul and on the victims.
Interesting, smooth. Thanks for posting. Looks like Atty Browne isn’t cowed by all the “unofficial” claims by unnamed “officials” who can’t go on “official” record because this is an ongoing investigation......etc.
Good for him. So no gov’t paperwork has a confession from Bales. Add to that, the gov’t hasn’t been back to investigate the alleged events? What DO they have at this point?
Do they have the bodies? Do they know when these people were killed?
Sounds like SSGt Bales has a good attorney. He’s doing a pretty good job pushing back at “rumors” saying the military hasn’t shown they have the goods to back up those rumors.
You act like a dangling participle will do. Here's a sentence for ya. Read it and weep. BALES ACQUITTED.
That is certainly a possibility.
But I still don't get Condit, what's that all about?
Not gonna happen. If nothing else, there is too much hanging on this one.
Besides, this young man had problems way before he enlisted. If his attorney does pursue the “bad apple” defense, it will be hard to rise above.
A recent Army health report draws an alarming profile of a fighting force more prone to inexcusable violence amid an “epidemic” of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the mental breakdown attracting speculation as a factor in a massacre of Afghan civilians this month.
Based on an exhaustive study of nearly 500,000 soldiers, reservists and veterans, the report finds that troops are more likely to commit suicide and violent sex offenses, and notes that as many as 236,000 suffered from PTSD since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
For military analysts, the reason is the nightmarish experience of sustained combat: Soldiers have been fighting the longest war in U.S. history, with frequent stressful deployments and compressed rest time back home.
Continued - Troops stressed to breaking point: Report cites sustained combat, redeployments
What’s hanging on this?
The afghanistanicans understand killing innocent women and children. Didn’t they invent it???
Exactly! So far alot of hot air and printers ink.
Do you want to see justice in this case?
If Bales is guilty, do you want him to be sentenced as such? If he is innocent, do you want to see him exonerated?
Is it possible that Bales committed his crime?
Not only is the duration without adequate downtime an issue, the soldiers are also dealing with perilous RoE, and a divisive CiC.
It’s more than that, though. Add to it the weight of trying to aid some of the most godawful people on the face of the planet.
Here’s another war story for you:
My Company responded to a large deep-buried IED only a few blocks east of our position while in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad (just south of the Green Zone). A Humvee patrol had been rolling through and was blown up. It was real bad. Dense residential area, 2-3 completely trashed Humvees, one of those burned to practically nothing.
I moved my PLT in on foot from about a block away. I smelled barbecued chicken in the air, I swear to God. I almost remarked on how it was making me hungry, when I suddenly realized what I was smelling—flash-cooked Soldiers. Another Platoon from the Humvee unit was working to dig out the bodies from the burned-up wreck. The bodies were completely charred, but still recognizably human, somehow. Soldiers in the other badly-damaged Humvees had lost limbs in the attack.
While they had that duty, my commander had us canvas the area to see if anyone knew anything. Of course nobody saw/knew/heard anything.
The thing about this IED is that it was “deep-buried” and estimated to be about 100 pounds of home-made explosives. So, some hajis managed to dig a 5-6 foot deep hole, drop 100 pounds of explosives into it, and fill it back in without ANYONE in this dense collection of homes seeing anything? Right.
That’s not even the outrageous part. The haji whose house was right in front of the blast crater had the gall to demand some money to replace the windows that were blown out by the explosion. To this day, I’m glad I wasn’t the one who talked to that POS, or I’d likely be on trial for killing an unarmed man.
These people are not worth it, yet we keep giving it our all.
I think more than anything else, the multiple tours are the most negative factor. Crappy ROE is probably a close second.
Ditto to what bigheadfred said, AB. Tell her to keep her chin up, and she has our support around here.
It appears that the “Arab Street” reaction to this is rather insignificant compared to the Koran burning incident.
Exactly, and you can bet all our combat soldiers have that on their minds every second they're there.
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