All wars witness the murder of innocent civilians and soldiers who simply “lost it”resulting in the murder-or even massacre- of noncombatants. Staff Sergeant Robert Bales went beserk in Afghanistan and killed sixteen Afghan civilians without any action on their parts to elicit such behavior. His case is winding down and all indications are there will be a guilty verdict. Bales refused to participate in a “sanity board” hearing which makes difficult finding him to be mentaly ill.
The trial will continue, witnesses will be summoned, the evidence will point toward a verdict of GUILTY and then remains the question of -Punishment! In which ways did the war and its brutality impact the mind and thinking of Bales? If it did, then what?
