"Rogue Soldier" Update

The American soldier accused of killing 16 civilians in Afghanistan last weekend is Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, a US official said on Friday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to provide additional details about the soldier.

[...]

Bales has not yet been charged in the incident.

  UK Guardian

I can only guess that after three tours and injuries in Iraq, just having been sent to an even more savage front in Afghanistan and seeing a fellow soldier's leg blown off, Staff Sergeant Bales believed an American prison (or possibly a psych ward) would be preferable to the hellhole he was now in. Or maybe he had truly "snapped" as is being said of him. Or, like the Ft. Lewis club before him that went out killing for kicks, he is just another sick American psycopath. That seems less likely to me than other possibilities, but I suppose time will reveal more as the defense and the prosecution gear up.

It strikes me that in comparing the military's treatment of these soldier murderers and the group at Abu Ghraib prison with its treatment of Brad Manning, that in effect the military is letting its personnel know that it condones, if not encourages, the abuse, torture and killing of Iraqis and Afghanis, including civilians.

Bales was flown from Kuwait to a military base in Kansas where he will be held in solitary confinement awaiting charges, the US army said.

"The Army confirms that Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Bales is being held in pre-trial confinement," the army said in a statement on Friday.

[...]

A senior US defence official said the suspect was drinking alcohol in the hours before the attack on villagers, violating a US military order banning alcohol in war zones.

  alJazeera

Laying the groundwork for the Army's rebuttal to Bales' attorney's attempt to blame the Army for Bales' actions.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai complained earlier on Friday that the US military had not co-operated with the Afghan team dispatched to investigate the massacre.

Yeah, the Army doesn't cooperate that well with outside investigations from anyone.

The leader of the delegation investigation the massacre said he wanted to ask the soldier whether he acted alone, or was part of a team, as has repeatedly been claimed by tribal elders who believe that a single gunman could not have killed so many people and in different places some distance apart.

“They killed so many of our loved ones, and do you have an answer why?” one elder asked Karzai. The president said he did not.

"I don't want any compensation. I don't want money, I don't want a trip to Hajj [pilgrimage], I don't want a house. I want nothing but the punishment of the Americans.” [...] another elder said.

Giving us a nicely laid out summary of the usual response to Afghans when we blow up innocent civilians.

The leaders insisted the soldier met no resistance because villagers were used to frequent night raids, as reported earlier by Al Jazeera.

"They bring our own Afghan soldiers to secure them as they break down our doors like animals. If you resist, they will shoot you. And if you don’t resist, they will put a hood over your head and take you to Bagram,” another elder said.

[...]

Karzai once again reiterated that he would hold the US accountable and make sure the soldier was brought to justice.

"This has been going on for too long. This is by all means the end of the rope here,'' Karzai told reporters. “This form of activity, this behaviour, cannot be tolerated. It's past, past, past the time.'

[...]

Karzai met the elders a day after he demanded foreign forces pull back from Afghan villages. He also called for the full transfer of security responsibility to Afghan forces be completed one year ahead of the announced schedule in 2013.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.