At this point, it's all "Standard Operating Procedure"...
A) Poor soldier is made to be the sole perpetrator by the U.S. military (whether he was or not). Standard "PTSD"/Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card is played.
C) FauxNews and the rest of the right wing media all run stories about his poor family, and how stressed they all are.
D) He does a few years, either in a VA mental hospital; or somewhere out of sight
E) Afghans riot, kill a few more civilians or US soldiers who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; then calm down and move on to the next outrage...(kind of like the Conservatives)
F) After awhile it's swept under the rug
G) If it actually results in the accelerated removal of our troops, then McCain and Lindsey Graham will p*ss-and-moan that they didn't get to finish ("win"?) the war we started 11 years ago. (But then, McCain/Graham never met a war they didn't like...) And all the neo-cons will pile on and break out their "cut and run" signs that they keep around for just such emergencies...
"WASHINGTON -- Nine days after a U.S. soldier allegedly massacred 17 civilians in Afghanistan, a top-level Pentagon health official ordered a widespread, emergency review of the military’s use of a notorious anti-malaria drug called mefloquine.
Mefloquine, also called Lariam, has severe psychiatric side effects. Problems include psychotic behavior, paranoia and hallucinations. The drug has been implicated in numerous suicides and homicides, including deaths in the U.S. military. For years the military has used the weekly pill to help prevent malaria among deployed troops. ".......................
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales pleaded guilty in a military courtroom to 16 counts of premeditated murder and other charges.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales pleaded guilty in a military courtroom to 16 counts of premeditated murder and other charges.
'Not a good reason': Sgt. Robert Bales admits to Afghan massacre By Mike Taibbi and Tracy Connor, NBC News
[He] said he couldn't explain why he did it.
"I've asked that question a million times since then, and there's not a good reason in the world for why I did the horrible things I did," Staff Sgt. Robert Bales told a military judge.
Bales, who appeared in a Washington state military courtroom in uniform, said he aimed to kill during two rogue raids on family compounds in Kandahar province in March 2012.
"I formed the intent as I raised my weapon," he said.
He recounted grappling with an older woman as he entered one compound.
"Upon completion of that struggle, I did form the intent to kill anyone in that compound," he said.
Asked whether the woman was armed in any way, Bales replied, "No, sir, she was not.'
It does look like he is showing proper remorse. Would it have been better to turn him over to the Afghans for trial? Or would that have been bad for morale? And establish a dangerous precedent.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Standard "PTSD"/Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card is played.
