Bales sentenced; life without parole
Big week for the military justice system, huh? According to the Washington Post, SSG Robert Bales was sentenced this morning, too;
Bales did not recount specifics of the horrors in court when he testified Thursday or offer an explanation for the violence, but he described the killings as an “act of cowardice, behind a mask of fear, bulls— and bravado.”
“I’m truly, truly sorry to those people whose families got taken away,” he said in a mostly steady voice during questions from one of his lawyers. “I can’t comprehend their loss. I think about it every time I look at my kids.”
Of course, I figure that the perpetually outraged will find fault with the sentence, but the judge gave the harshest punishment he could under the circumstances.
Thanks to Chip for the link.
Category: Breaking News
Smitty, the tactics you propose we’re already attempted.
Alexander the Great tried to exterminate the civilian population to force submission from insurgents. Once he realized that he was creating new generations of insurgents he married into a powerful tribe to gain passage for his Army to India.
Spetznatz tried the terror on terror campaign where they would broadcast an attack on a village to run the fighting age males to ground. Then they would burn the village (filled with non-combatants) to the ground.
I’m sure you were already aware of these examples, and the countless other failed attempts at these tactics. You continue to point out that “they” do it to us. How has that worked out for them?
If you want to learn how to deal with the young people in a nation you occupy take a page from the Muslim’s history book. One of the most effective fighting units in history were the Janissaries.
These were young Christian (often white) males who were indoctrinated into the Turkish and Islamic customs. The were the unit that breached the gates of Constantinople and defeated the European Army there.
If they would have been slaughtered as kids the city may have never fell.
and lets look at the examples of where it worked. Pol Pot, may he burn in hell, exterminated all dissidents and had it not been for outside forces (those pesky commies) he never would have been taken out of cambodia. Mao used fear, force, and terror to suppress his enemies, china is still communist. the romans would beat to death every tenth man of a brigade in their own army for one man showing cowardice, they had the greatest empire in the world. Fear is a great weapon, its why the terrorists use it against us. they have scared the fight out of our politicians, generals, and civilians, and you want to tell me fear doesnt work as a weapon? your own examples dont hold water, alexander of macidonia ruled and conquered leaveing a trail of destruction. he created the largest empire the world had ever seen, and by fear, maintained it until after his death. yes, it fell apart, but not until Alexander was dead did fear lose its grip on those he fought. we need to stop sacrificing our own to appease the public, and realize that war is a dirty, messy endeavor and we must win. your argument that terror tactics have always failed in the past reminds me a lot of the capitalism has always failed arguments. just because there are slight down turns from time to time, doesnt mean the system has failed. terror is the greatest weapon of mass destruction on the planet! it is what holds nuclear war in check and stops major powers from going to open war with each other. we all fear the possible outcomes and cower at their mere mention. as for how those tactics have worked out for those we fight now, lets see. the world rejoices with them every time an american dies, mourns with them when a terrorists dies, sympathizes with the militant struggle to kill all americans. actually it seems to be working pretty well for them, and outside of revisionist theories of history, has worked great in the past. we need to return to… Read more »
i was waiting for this, now karzi says that the US should replant their gardens and orchards for these people. apparently, some of the bullets ricocheted and took out their plants or something. this is yet another chance for the afganis to try to milk money out of the US.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/08/24/us-must-help-villages-hit-by-army-killing-spree-karzai/
they say they wanted him hanged, but how many years did it take before someone had the balls to tell us where bin laden was hiding after he killed 3000 of our citizens?
i am not justifying SSG Bales actions, im just saying we shouldnt care. i am much more concerned with American lives.
Smitty, and to those of the same ilk, “The blind see what they want to see.” I read your diatribes and it is as interesting as a 13 year old girl on Facebook. The difference is that you are apparently an adult and you are an ignorant, perfidious and insipid individual. Again, I’ve read your benighted platter and its fetor resonates the DNA of a disturbed individual full of impolitic frivolity. It’s disquieting to know that there are singleton’s like you who espouse and fuel malevolence towards those who wish and have no ill-will for Americans. Seriously, are you that ill-educated that you do not know that an Afghani and a Turk are not Arabs and That there are more Muslims in Indonesia than in the Middle East? Oh, here is a bit of news for you. Muslims are here in the U.S., and they have been here before 9/11. In fact, the majority of Muslims started immigrating to the U.S. since the 1880s and have been upstanding American citizens. Conversely, the vast majority of Americans are mature enough to comprehend the act of murder and separate the facts from the abhorrence you so confusedly entwine. Murder is murder. The attributes of race, religion, creed, ethnicity and nationality are absent from this evil act. Taking a person’s life such as the lives taken by Thomas Bales and Nidal Hasan are unequivocally wrong. In regards to Turks, Turkey is America’s number one ally in the Greater Middle East. Turkey joined NATO in its infancy over 60 years ago. They have the second largest military in the region and were instrumental during the Cold War to deter Soviet expansion into the Middle East. Also, Turkey prior to joining NATO helped us fight the Communists in Korea. It was not too long ago when Turkey was also involved in our War in Iraq. Weren’t you in the military and should you not know this? Were you sleeping somewhere or did our education system fail you somehow? Your puerile objectivity certainly encapsulates a lack of matter in that brain case you house. You see,… Read more »
Well said Marc. Smitty, it sounds like you idolize the people you are claiming to hate. You clearly cannot be reasoned with.
Bales had TBI, experienced run ins with LEO, and was required to attend anger management. He should not have been in AFG. Big Army Fail.
And Karzai can go pound salt with his whining for more financial help.
LZ: Your stating that the if the Janissaries, “kids who were Christian and White” were killed that the fall of Constantinople may never have occurred is comical. First of all, the Janissaries came from a Christian background indoctrinated as children into this culture and religion by their parents.
Religion is not an attribute one is born with. It’s assigned and nurtured into the minds of children. And eventually, for some, it becomes a choice to stay religiously connected, change religions or forget religion at all as one gets older. As the parents of these children indoctrinated their children into its religion or to the culture existing in the Albania, Greece and the specific areas of the Balkans, the Ottomans did the same to these children.
Some parents would offer their children to the Janissaries because they knew that their children would have an opportunity for their children to have a better life.
Second, the Janissaries were a force to contend with whether the recruits were from the Balkans or elsewhere. It was the system in place that made the warriors effective; not where the recruits came from overall. However, the Janissaries picked boys from Christian families because they could easily mold them into the Ottoman way of thinking. The concern was that the current Janissaries, prior to this military reform, could rise up against the Sultan and establish power.
Therefore, the Janissary system was the essence of the success of the Ottoman military; not where the soldiers came from. Technology is what provided the strength to over power the Constantinople in 1453. It was the fire power of the canon which enabled the Ottomans to break down the city walls and emerge victorious. This technology was not present during prior engagements. The Ottoman military did not sustain its strength when she could not keep up with the technological military advancements of European states such as Spain, France and England.
LZ, what I wrote is in plain English. One does not have to idolize someone to have the same mind-set. You can have the same beliefs as someone else and be on par with them, it’s not that difficult to comprehend.
Marc, clearly you did not read my posts, as you would have seen that i stated, i know the difference between arabs, turks, persians, etc. i just dont care. go back and read my posts, because i do not take to repeating myself. i am hardly uneducated, i hold 2 degrees that actually focus in this field. i speak, read, and write arabic fluently and have read the koran in arabic. i lump them all together because of the hatred and violence that is bred into their religion. i would like to point out your moronic statements or to use your term “failed by the education system”. there are not more muslims in indonesia, that it a total fallacy. the argument can be made that there is a higher concentration of muslims there, but not more total. get any geography book and look at population totals, and please, do not insult my intelligence while stating that moronic blather. also, while we do have a decent relationship with the turks, they are hardly our greatest ally in the middle east. Israel, and Egypt are far above them on any totem pole when it comes to our middle east allies. the majority of these people are not hard working or honest, they are lazy, untrustworthy, scum. im guessing if you were in the military, you didnt spend much time outside the wire. if you try to hire anyone in these areas for a job, they will tell you they will be there, “ish allah” god willing. which actually means that if god personally comes to their bed room, gets them dressed, makes them breakfast, and drives them to their appointed destination, they will be there. you cant trust them for shit. we had detained maktada al sadre’s brother in law one night on a raid. he sat in our little interrogation room for 12 hours swearing on a stack that maktada al sadre never spoke ill of americans, that he loved americans. was willing to stake his life that maktada al sadre never called on his followers to attack americans. yeah, we… Read more »
i love the claim that i can not be reasoned with from someone who has refused to even look at my side of the argument. ive seen both sides and studied both sides, i have come to my conclusions through research and life experience. Islam is filled with violence and hatred. it is also taught to children of this region from the time they are small and if they try to reject the violence and hatred, they are likely to be killed by their own families. (that is also called for in the koran)
i am not going to claim that SSG Bales acts were anything other than criminal, but i dont see what it matters. Americans dont seem to care about 4 dead American citizens in benghazi, 13 dead soldiers from Ft Hood, an american cleric executed with out a trial or charges, why should we care about 16 dead afganis? why do yall wise, all knowing retards not answer my questions? you call me unreasonable, but you have made no attempt to reason. you have no answered me, no given anything to argue against my statements.
oh, except for marc, his first posts came here insulting my intellect while speaking out his ass. read the previous posts first next time.
Smitty: so, your argument is, essentially: “What Bales did was evil, but we should ignore that because he did it to some people we don’t like.”
Sounds to me exactly like what those apologizing today for the Holocaust are preaching. (Note that I said “apologizing for”, not denying.) They also say, in essence, “It doesn’t matter.”
The hell it doesn’t matter. And Bales’ crimes matter just as much. They’re both examples of the same thing: the murder of innocents based on nothing more than ethnicity. Condone one, you condone both.
If you don’t see that, you’re being willfully blind.
Targeting noncombatants is always wrong. Who is doing it is irrelevant. It is always wrong.
Using situational ethics to justify anything because one likes or dislikes some of the participants is also always wrong.
That is all.
Marc, you’ve mistaken my posts for others. I agreed with you, and posted nothing about the Janisarrys.
Smitty, I’m going to call BS on your fluent Arabic. Odd thing to lie about. Even if it was true it would gain you no credibility; you would simply be a bilingual narrow-minded hate monger. Shirley Phelps-Roper also holds 2 degrees… Where did you get yours? That institution has clearly dropped the ball across the board. I see your side every day, and I detest willful ignorance. Your rants remind me of those pissy privates everyone hated on deployment. Also, think about the forum you are in before you throw around your “you didn’t spend much time outside the wire” comments.
You want me to answer a question? Here’s an answer: you shouldn’t care about dead afghanis. Afghanis are currency. The people are Afghans. I’m astounded that no one covered that in your extensive educatation “focused” in that field.
I’m going to stop responding to you now so you can have the last word. Your type never stops until they do in any case.
my argument is, what SSG Bales did is evil, but no different than what those same people celebrate doing to us.
i think the best way to say it, “The hell it doesn’t matter. And Bales’ crimes matter just as much. They’re both examples of the same thing: the murder of innocents based on nothing more than ethnicity.(this last part is what im getting at) Condone one, you condone both.”
i like that, condone one, ya condone both. the only thing is, im taking it from the other side. the afganis condone the murder of our people, so by that logic, this one should be excused, right? this has nothing to do with who i like or dont like. i harbor no ill will or feelings towards muslims of any ethnicity, i am totally apathetic towards them.
i am looking at this simply as, since the murder of our civilians is condoned by them, lets return the favor. lets play their game by their rules. this is truly an evil act, and there is no defense for it, but it is an act in accordance with the rules set out by those who would wish us ill.
you can not win a war on the moral high ground, it surrenders the strategic high ground. hey, at the end of the day we can still hold our heads up high, we fought a good honorable fight. As my father, an old 80s era SFer always told me. only the loser complains about a fair fight. so we can complain that the muslims/arabs/afganis didnt fight fair, or we can fight their fight and beat them at it.
OK, Smitty, if this were the 1970s and you were with LT William Calley at My Lai, or if you only heard about it for that matter, would you say the same things?
A massacre is a massacre, period. Doesn’t matter who did it, or who the victims are, but your anger is coloring your responses.
So answer my question: if it were My Lai, would you say the same things?
LZ, i have no clue who you are, ive never seen your posts around here. i would guess, if you arent a POG, you are an officer. i dont like officers much, they get people killed trying to be politically correct and kiss ass to make rank. ive always been open about who i am. ive never been to afganistan, i was in iraq. i study, its my passion. i study everything i can at every opportunity. my degrees are through OSU in International Politics (emphasis in middle wast relations) and Modern American History. i love my country, plain and simple. i have given all that has ever been asked of me and would happily give more. i would still be in the army now had i not broken my back on a jump in 05. i dont lie, i own my fuck ups as well as my accomplishments. i am probably the most stereotypical infantry NCO you will ever meet. i hold no will full ignorance, i am very well educated and that has drawn me to my views. there is nothing you have said that contradicts anything i have put forward, you have only attacked my view and insulted. i have stated, the only way we will win the war on terror is if we play by their ROE. you have no even denied that, you have only attacked me saying it. i stated that by condemning SSG Bales, it shows our weakness to our enemies and they have learned to exploit the soft hearts of our civilians. you have not contradicted that either. ive stated that my greatest concern out of this is for the family of SSG Bales, and i dont care about some dead afganis. that is simply an opinion, and we are all welcome to ours. im glad that you can point out that i called them afganis instead of afgans, dont care, ive never been to afganistan. as far as im concerned, an afgan is a blanket, my mother makes then for my nieces and nephews. i dont care what ya call them,… Read more »
Ex, why do you have to show up when i want to be pissed?
Mai Lai was a horrible event, just like this was, and south east asia holds a very special place in my heart.
the difference between mai lai and this, is that the vietnameese were not openly attacking our civilian populace and celebrating the deaths of our civilians. this attack was along the same lines as the attacks that the afganis would plan and execute against us. someone else compared it to nadal hasan, i find that to be a good comparison. these same people that denounce SSG Bales celebrated the deaths of our americans at the hands of hasan. i find both events to be horrific events, but it shows our enemies our weakness of heart by making a public mockery of SSG Bales and dragging ass for hasan. if they think it was so great to see 13 dead americans, then we should return the favor and celebrate 16 dead afganis. is this right? hell no, but it is the only way to beat them. we can either be right, or we can be victors, in this war, we can not be both.
and on a totally unrelated side, Calley was an LT, i hate officers.
@68.
Wow.
I was an E-5 when I went GtG and commissioned. 11B to 11A. CIB, Snowcone, Tab, the whole none yards. And I picked up the Tab as an E-4.
You can have your opinion and some of it has merit.
But your suck hole is making you look stupid.
Cap it.
Nine.
No spellcheck issue on this one.
Last weekend before class.
Canning salsa verde, pickles and blanching maters while cooking burgers and putting away gallons of beer.
Last weekend to have fun.
GT, ill agree that my opinions make me appear angry and a bit ethnically biased, but all my statements have had merit. my opinions i am just as entitled to as those who call for SSG Bales death.
i never would have guessed you for an officer, but a mustang is a totally different thing entirely.
Why do I show up when you want to be pissed, Smitty?
It’s because the only person I want to see butting his head against a hard brick wall is pauk k wickre.
@74.
And Phildo, who buts his “head” against some firm taxpayer asscheeks.
GT – Yes.
@58, Marc It wasn’t LZ who bought up the Jannisaries, It was me.
Your post went way deeper then mine on their history. Perhaps I oversimplified it in stating that using “white Christian” males was the complete key to victory for the Turks/ Jannisaries taking Constantinople.
The point I was trying to make is that the Turks didn’t exclude non-Turkish non-Moslems and execute them out of hand. They gave them an opportunity to become a part of their culture and it worked out well for them.
You folks who talk about how he just killed Arabs realize Afghans aren’t Arabs, right? Or have you never been there?
Did you read more than one post? I said I didnt care that they claim to be different, they all act and believe the same. I also stated that while ive been to iraq, ive never been to afganistan. I hope you didnt claim you could read.
Afghans have 8 major Ethnic Groups, the largest being the Pashtun (30-40%) The Arab population Of Afghanistan,combined with 4 or 5 other small ethnic groups make up less than 4% of the population. Calling an Afghan an Arab is about as accurate as calling an Irishman an Austrian.
Smitty, I’m calling BS. I have been to both Afghanistan and Iraq, and you are way off base with your premise. Bales dealt one hell of a PR blow to the ISAF effort – this coming from a guy that has spent many hours at local leader meetings in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The lack of basic knowledge about the culture in both countries by US forces was astounding. Read the history of the Brits in both countries. Look at what they did to maintain the empire in Waziristan, Afghanistan, India. Look up the ethnic breakdown in Kandahar and then look up Pashtunwali. Read and read some more – as much as you can. Read the history of Alexander’s campaigns in the area 2500 years ago and then see the similarities with the situation today. The criminal part of the last 12 years is conducting huge campaigns in craphole parts of the globe without a solid long term strategy.
I am an NCO in the Army – Active, Reserve and now Guard – have been one for a long, long time. What Bales did was murder, and nothing justifies it. He has shamed the NCO Corps, period.
Oh, and go ahead and call a Kurd or Pashtun an Arab. I dare you.
Smitty- let me put in plain and simple Sgt. Hulka language-
WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS.
We always were, and always will be. Good guys don’t break rules and stray to play by the bad guys’s rules. If we did, we’d be just like the bad guys (e.g. Japs, Nazis, CCF, VC, Taliban etc.).
Good guys CARE when one of our own turns bad…no matter what the reason.
There is NO justification for Bale’s actions…that is why he is going to PCS to Leavenworth for the remainder.
You line of thinking reminds me of the old saying from out west- “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”
That doesn’t cut it.
I still must ask if yall read my posts. I never justified SSG Bales actions or said it was the right route to take. I SAID IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO WIN! I am well aware the history of the region and the different ethnic groups, I dont care. I called a peraian an arab to his face yeaterday. It pissed him off, I smiled. I dont know if the reading comprehension skills here are on a serious down slide or if everyone is just getting to lazy to read.
Damn, Smitty – give it a rest already! We heard you the first time. Telling us the same thing over and over and over and over and over again does nothing to bolster your argument.
You are entitled to your opinion. You expressed it. It’s time to move along.
Smitty: you said,
“you can not win a war on the moral high ground, it surrenders the strategic high ground. hey, at the end of the day we can still hold our heads up high, we fought a good honorable fight. As my father, an old 80s era SFer always told me. only the loser complains about a fair fight. so we can complain that the muslims/arabs/afganis didnt fight fair, or we can fight their fight and beat them at it.”
So you are saying that killing defenseless children is fighting a “good honorable fight”?
And you are saying that we can “beat them at it” by killing their children? Really? Is that the “kill them all and let God sort them out” philosophy that you believe we should adopt? You really believe that that that is a strategy that will win wars?
Bullshit.
I think he’s trying to say we lost World War II because we weren’t as ruthless about committing cold-blooded murder of civilians and POWs as the Germans and Japanese, Marine_7002.
That statement would be wrong, of course. But it would be consistent with Smitty’s thesis that a nation wins a war only by matching or exceeding the level of mindless, barbaric brutality used by one’s wartime opponent.
I said we lost vietnam because we crucified our soldiers for similar acts committed by our enemies. This destroyed opinion of our military as a whole with our civilian populace. We are doing the same thing now and these current wars will go down in history as losses. Our enemies celebrate the atrocities committed against our populace and gain support for their actions through public opinion. Ww2 was a conventional war and could be fought with conventional means. There can be no comparison between that and now, im rather surprised you would draw a comparison hondo. We are destroying the over all opinion of our forces by public crucifixion of SSG Bales. Because we will not stand behind our soldiers, even when they fuck up, we lose. I am not condoning his actions, but to make his trial so publicand to bring in the hajis from the villages he hit make this an over all loss for america. By making these incidents so public, it gives the appearance of more wide spread atrocities.
we need to be allowed to hate our enemies, as we did the germans and japaneese in WW2, or we are doomed to another lost war
OWB, I get called out by people who didnt read what I said and choose to focus on one line from one post, im going to respond.
Marine, read the damn poats and answer your ouw question.
Smitty, we lost Vietnam because of strategy and tactics, not ROE. Read what the Brits had to do to secure Malaya from 1948-60. We don’t have anywhere near that patience. The North Vietnamese had 30 years of fighting experience in their home field and played us and the French like a fiddle. They basically outsmarted us. Going your way means we end up playing like Assad and the Syrians are now, and if we ever go down that road then something is seriously wrong and you can let me off that bus ASAP. We are NCOs and Officers of the US, and like it or not we follow DC’s orders. Don’t like it, ETS. It’s that simple.
The military has one of the highest ratings in the country already. People know that Iraq and Afghanistan are goat f***s, but the US military is still slogging away. Bales detracted from that. Average Joe Citizen does not see the story that a US NCO killed a bunch of women and children and think “Well, they deserved it. Good job, Sergeant.” He is not part of the solution, and is right where he belongs.
Bales is now a number. He disgraced his family, his service, his nation and left many broken hearts and minds scattered across two countries. There is no more to say on this issue, however we can state the facts he is nothing more than a cold blooded murderer who will spend the rest of his pathetic life in jail. Then when he dies, he will spend eternity in hell!
A public trial is part of something call Democracy. That is how things are done in the US.
I made no such comparison between the GWOT and World War II, Smitty. I merely used an intentionally absurd statement to illustrate the fallacy of your argument above.
You also show abject ignorance regarding Vietnam. While I might argue about some of the details, PFM is essentially correct. We lost in Vietnam because our strategy there was flawed from day one. The late Harry Summers covered that, eloquently and in detail, over 30 years ago in On Strategy.
Arguably, we never should have never fought in Vietnam at all (we really had no significant interests at stake in French Indochina after World War II). And when we became involved, IMO we compounded that error by picking the absolutely worst strategy possible.
Like it or not, Smitty rises valid points. Read Lone Survivor and take note of the vote on the sheep herders, and what the outcome was. Not easy defining who is and who is not a combatant.
btw, the WWII comment is a Strawman.
RunPatRun: which of Smitty’s points do you consider valid, amigo?
His point that he doesn’t care about the blood of innocents if they’re “Arabs” (comment 6)? His point that he’s an “expert” on conditions in Afghanistan without ever setting foot there (comments 31 and 78, taken together)? His point that “who cares” what Bales did (comment 6)? His overt advocacy that the US should “play by the same ROE they use, none” and deliberately target women and children (comment 31)? His point that he considers “arabs, turks, persians, etc. they are all the same scum” (comment 28)? His disregard for international law (“international laws be damned”, comment 31)? Or his point that “they (Muslims) all act and believe the same” (comment 78)?
One last observation: you’re simply wrong about my World War II analogy. That’s not a strawman, fella. Rather, that’s an example of reductio ad absurdum, applied to one of Smitty’s points identified elsewhere. Look the term up if you don’t know what it means.
“Marine, read the damn poats and answer your ouw question.” I did read them, every one of them. I stand by my comments. You obviously have no moral compass, no sense of right or wrong. You contradict yourself by saying that you don’t condone what Bales did, and in the next breath saying that “you can not win a war on the moral high ground, it surrenders the strategic high ground,” thereby implying that what he did should be strategy for conduct of the war. Another quote of yours that is totally contradictory: “I never justified SSG Bales actions or said it was the right route to take. I SAID IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO WIN!” Huh? Which is it, Smitty? Was Bales wrong in killing those innocent civilians, was it the “wrong route to take”, or is what he did the “only way to win”? Or are you just so lacking in the art of logical thinking that you don’t understand what you are saying? Oh, and your suggestion that holding his trial in public (@87) “makes this a loss for america” displays your total ignorance (or discregard) of of the Constitution of the United States of America, specifically the Sixth Amendment. To quote: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and PUBLIC [my emphasis added] trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.” You swore an oath to “support and defend the Constitution.” You renouncing that oath? You think that the Bill of Rights is just a legal nicety to be conveniently ignored when adhering to it makes us look bad? You said to “read the damn poats.” I did. Every single word. I hope you’re not on active duty and spouting any… Read more »
@86 Hondo: I was in agreement with your comment at first, but after further reflection, I’ve come to the conclusion that he doesn’t know WHAT he is trying to say.
Marine_7002: have to concede that as a valid possibility.
@94 RunPatRun: you need to read ALL of Smitty’s “poats”. He couldn’t find a logical, non-contradictory argument if it jumped up and bit him in the ass.
By the way, it’s pretty difficult to believe that SSG Balescould not determine who was and was not a combatant when 11 of the people he killed were women and children. He is an experienced infantryman; I seriously doubt that he mistook those people for combatants or attempting to perform a legitimate military task. So your comment about the difficulty of identifying combatants is totally inapplicable.
@95 Hondo: thanks for the addition to my understanding of Latin phrases. Very apropo. 😀
@99 Should have been “I seriously doubt that he mistook those people for combatants or WAS attempting to perform a legitimate military task.”