This testimony doesn’t make sense, but maybe I am missing something.
I’m a little confused by this too.
It sounds to me like he told his parents exactly what they wanted to hear in his e-mails to them. He also was telling the people in his platoon exactly what they wanted to hear.
If I found myself in a situation where I was going out on combat patrols with heavily armed people, I don't think I would be engaging in ideological debate with the other people in my fire team/squad/platoon.
I'm guessing his true feelings were more in line with what he was telling his parents.
Bob is a homeschooling Calvinist former pastor who also likes to pray in Arabic and stalk women half his age.
Bowe moved into his ballet teacher's apartment when he was 17, got kicked out of the Coast Guard, and told people he wanted to cut off a Talabani's face and wear it as a mask.
Nothing either says or does can be reconciled from one day to the next.