Sgt. Robert Bales: Details emerge on soldier charged with killing Afghan villagers

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales joined the Army shortly after the 911 terrorist attacks, and he served three tours in Iraq before being sent to Afghanistan. Now he sits in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, charged with killing 16 Afghan villagers.

|
Spc. Ryan Hallock/DVIDS/AP
In this Aug. 2011 photo, Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, right, participates in an exercise at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. The man at left is unidentified. Staff Sgt. Bales is charged with killing 16 Afghan villagers.

The US Army has at last released the name of the soldier who went on a shooting spree nearly one week ago, killing 16 Afghan civilians including 9 children.

But there remain a number of questions surrounding precisely what led 38 year-old Staff Sergeant Robert Bales to embark on a murderous rampage.

The Pentagon released details late Friday night that begin to paint a picture of Sgt. Bales, who enlisted in the military just two months after the September 11th terrorist attacks.

His first deployment to Iraq came in November, 2004, where he served for a year. He returned in June of 2006 for an extended 15-month tour, which the Army began instituting at the height of violence in Iraq. 

Bales returned to the country again in August, 2009, where he served until June of the following year.

How much do you know about Afghanistan? Take the quiz.

During that time, in an interview with a local newspaper, he extolled the virtues of careful soldiering to protect the local population. 

“I’ve never been more proud to be a part of this unit … for the simple fact that we discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants,” he told the Fort Lewis Northwest Guardian after a battle in Iraq in 2007. “Afterward we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us.”

John Henry Browne, Bales’ Seattle-based lawyer, told reporters that his client had not demonstrated any animosity towards the Afghan people. “He’s never said anything antagonistic about Muslims,” Mr. Browne said. “He’s in general very mild-mannered.”

Prior to deploying to Afghanistan in December, Bales received traumatic brain injury (TBI) treatment at Fort Lewis and “was deemed to be fine,” according to ABC News.

Even so, Bales was surprised when he learned he would have to return to war last year, according to his lawyer.

Once he arrived in Afghanistan, he was assigned to be part of a protection unit for Special Operations Forces working with local militias. 

The Pentagon release notes multiple awards and decorations for Bales, including three Army “good conduct” medals, two meritorious unit commendations, and the Army superior unit award. 

But while Browne told reporters that Bales was “highly decorated” and had been injured twice in Iraq, there is no mention in Bales’ Pentagon-released service record of any Purple Hearts, and a recommendation for a Bronze Star for Bales was turned down.

Now he is being held in pre-trial confinement at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in a “state-of-the-art, medium/minimum custody facility,” according to the Pentagon release.

Bates is “in special housing in his own cell and not in a four-person bay. He will be afforded time outside the cell for hygiene and recreational purposes,” the release adds.

In his hometown, neighbors say they are stunned Bales stands accused of mass murder. “I’m shocked. I’m completely shocked,” Kassie Holland told CBS News. “He was always happy. Happy guy, full of life – I really wouldn’t expect it.”

The charges run contrary to Bales’ own words in the 2007 interview with his local newspaper as well, when he expressed disdain for any insurgent would could put “his family in harm’s way like that,” he said. “I think that’s the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy.”

How much do you know about Afghanistan? Take the quiz.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Sgt. Robert Bales: Details emerge on soldier charged with killing Afghan villagers
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2012/0317/Sgt.-Robert-Bales-Details-emerge-on-soldier-charged-with-killing-Afghan-villagers
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe