Posted on Oct 22, 2015
Robert Bales claims his massacre of 16 civilians in Afghanistan is uniquely different from those mass shootings in the US. Agree?
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“I was so angry at these [Afghani] guys for putting their families in harm's way like that,” he said. “So I blamed them, but I took it out on [the women and children]. I was just raging.” Bales was an army staff sergeant aged 39 on his fourth deployment to a combat zone in 2012.
Military officials said he had been drinking before creeping away from base in the Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar, armed with a pistol, a rifle and a grenade launcher. Witnesses said he opened fire on sleeping families before burning some of dead bodies.
At one point he returned to tell a fellow soldier, “I just shot up some people.”
In the interview he said he been suffering from stress, non-stop anger – caused by guilt at failing to prevent an attack that maimed a friend when Bales was on sentry duty - and was using steroids, when he went into “autopilot” and launched his murderous raid. He said he thinks about his actions again and again.
“I can't take it back,” he said. “If I could, I would. Not just because I'm gonna be in prison for the rest of my life. Because of the cost. No conscious person wants war. No conscious person wants to kill people.”
But he also said he feels he let down his fellow troops.
“I want to say to those guys that I hurt—my guys, the patriot brotherhood—I want them to know I'm sorry,” he said. “I don't want nothing but good things for my soldiers. I hope that in some way they can understand how sorry I am. They're my family, and I love them.”
He also tried to distance himself from other American mass shooters such as James Holmes, who murdered 12 people at midnight screening of Batman film The Dark Knight Rises.
“It wasn't like I was looking to go into a school and open up on a bunch of kids,” he said. “That doesn't make it right. I'm not trying to make it right. I can't make it right. The difference between a soldier and a thug is authority, and I didn't have authority. But it's not the same as walking into a movie theatre and opening up on a bunch of people in a Batman movie.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/11947019/Robert-Bales-says-he-was-on-autopilot-when-he-massacred-16-Afghan-civilians.html
Military officials said he had been drinking before creeping away from base in the Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar, armed with a pistol, a rifle and a grenade launcher. Witnesses said he opened fire on sleeping families before burning some of dead bodies.
At one point he returned to tell a fellow soldier, “I just shot up some people.”
In the interview he said he been suffering from stress, non-stop anger – caused by guilt at failing to prevent an attack that maimed a friend when Bales was on sentry duty - and was using steroids, when he went into “autopilot” and launched his murderous raid. He said he thinks about his actions again and again.
“I can't take it back,” he said. “If I could, I would. Not just because I'm gonna be in prison for the rest of my life. Because of the cost. No conscious person wants war. No conscious person wants to kill people.”
But he also said he feels he let down his fellow troops.
“I want to say to those guys that I hurt—my guys, the patriot brotherhood—I want them to know I'm sorry,” he said. “I don't want nothing but good things for my soldiers. I hope that in some way they can understand how sorry I am. They're my family, and I love them.”
He also tried to distance himself from other American mass shooters such as James Holmes, who murdered 12 people at midnight screening of Batman film The Dark Knight Rises.
“It wasn't like I was looking to go into a school and open up on a bunch of kids,” he said. “That doesn't make it right. I'm not trying to make it right. I can't make it right. The difference between a soldier and a thug is authority, and I didn't have authority. But it's not the same as walking into a movie theatre and opening up on a bunch of people in a Batman movie.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/11947019/Robert-Bales-says-he-was-on-autopilot-when-he-massacred-16-Afghan-civilians.html
Warfare
Crime
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 42
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He was supposed to be one of the "good guys", it's normal that we all want answers and to try to explain this, even him.
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CPO Andy Carrillo, MS
True, but is his claim that his massacre was different from theater shootings valid? Is he correct in trying to make this distinction?
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CPO Andy Carrillo, MS
CPT (Join to see) - I think it to be a self-serving attempt to emotionally/psychologically come to terms (mentally integrate) with him, as a U.S. soldier single-handedly becoming the worst mass murderer of civilians in American-Afghanistan military history. He seems also to be seeking any form of redemption...in addition to clemency.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/08/u-s-army-mass-murderer-the-hate-grows-not-only-for-insurgents-but-towards-everyone-who-isnt-american/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/08/u-s-army-mass-murderer-the-hate-grows-not-only-for-insurgents-but-towards-everyone-who-isnt-american/
U.S. Army mass murderer: ‘The hate grows not only for insurgents, but towards everyone who isn’t...
"War is evil," Robert Bales wrote in a bid for clemency. "I see that now. I, being part of war, acted in evil."
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Capt Seid Waddell
In my opinion he is. They may both have reached the same point of insanity, but they got there by completely different routes. He was apparently a good soldier before he snapped; our home-grown psychopaths have evidently had long-standing mental problems that the system recognized but did nothing to institutionalize them to protect society.
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MCPO Roger Collins
Precisely! If there was a case for PTSD, IMO, this was one. In another day and time he would have been treated and recovered.
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CPO Andy Carrillo, MS
MCPO Roger Collins - Could the same argument be made for domestic psychotic killers who experienced childhood/school traumas (incessant bullying and stress) as well as dealing with mental disorders which added to their life's frustrations?
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Capt Seid Waddell
CPO Andy Carrillo, MS, MCPO Roger Collins, I believe that serious mental disease (psychosis) has an organic (biochemical) basis rather than an emotional basis like Bales evidently experienced.
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Probably got steroids from the foreign soldiers (polish use nonstop downrange)
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CPO Andy Carrillo, MS
Interesting that he would violate regs regardless of who supplied him with 'roids to fuel his rage.
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The one thing I can say is that Bales said it best in that there is no justification to his actions. However, how many people are diagnosed with PTSD after 1 event? This guy spent 37 months in 7 years in country as an infantryman. There is not a person to blame, and you know Chris Kyle did the same, although it messed him up too. The actions of Bales are disgusting and a disgrace to our uniform- but I cannot bad mouth him. I never walked a day in his shoes. I didn't see what he did. How is it we allow a normal civilian that was "bullied" plea insanity, but won't allow a veteran clearly dealing with severe PTSD to do the same? Men and women kill their own children and claim work stress... Just think about that for a moment. I am by no means defending this guy, but I do feel badly about the situations he has to live with.
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CPO Andy Carrillo, MS
Yes, it seems that everyone has a reason for 'snapping', voicing rationalizations that will diminish their monstrous decisions to murder innocents. The only psychotics that seem to accept responsibility for their actions are cartel assassins and Islamo-radicals.
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I had forgotten about him until this post, thanks, now I have to forget about him again. He may be sorry now but where was the voice of reason when he was on sentry duty and not being actively engaged by the enemy? He is where he needs to be and he's right, he can't take it back.
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I think everyone here is missing the point. He is responsible for his actions and knows that it was wrong. That's not being debated. He's trying to say that he's not the same as the mass shooters from here in America. On paper he is but in reality he's not. He didn't actively seek out to destroy these people because he didn't like something about them. He lost control of himself and failed to regain control. That's what he was saying. I'm not saying I think he's telling the truth because let's be honest, if you drink before something like this happens then is probably pre meditated but he couldn't bring himself to do it sober so he had to drink and steroids helps with getting a rush a bit. Plus he set out with a pistol, rifle and grenade launcher which is only ever acceptable if you're going to an objective or possibly on patrol but not going all Rambo. I think he planned to cause pain and suffering to someone, maybe not who actually suffered and died but someone. He deserves what punishment lies ahead either way because whether it was pre mediated or alcohol/drug and PTSD influenced, he had the ability to handle it much differently and he didn't so he was wrong
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CPO Andy Carrillo, MS
Much like the Aurora shooter who had no way of knowing who would be attending the movie, all they wanted to do was lash out and make someone 'pay' for whatever perceived wrongs they projected onto innocent people. Great post. Thanks!
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This is different than the US shooters. The US shooters don't hunt and kill people for a living we do. There's a fine line we have to walk and everyone knows it. We can't kill everyone but sometimes we want to. I'm not sticking up for him, but he is different than the Batman and school shooters. We are trained to take life and they are not.
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CPO Andy Carrillo, MS
Most of the domestic shooters were very well trained to kill, just not in the conventional sense, e.g., video games (virtual training) combined with actual range time, etc. Visualization training is very well documented as an effective training technique, so my guess is that domestic mass shooters have more virtual training (which translates into muscle memory) than the non-shooter. Ex: in CA a recently released parolee shot and killed two CHP officers by point-shooting a .22 handgun--something he practiced in
prison for several years before his release, only by daily simulating a gun with his index finger. 2 shots, two cops.
prison for several years before his release, only by daily simulating a gun with his index finger. 2 shots, two cops.
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He was drinking taking steroids and had signs of PTSD. Still should be held accountable for his actions, only one of the above would have changed my opinion. But the drinking and taking steroids is a big ass nogo
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I call BS... He says he is different because he didn't have authority? I think he had more authority. He was there to protect those people. How is it different than walking into the theater? Idiot...
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SPC (Join to see)
It is different in the aspect of multiple years of violence (4 tours), high stress enviroment of combat and loss of his brothers. I live in Colorado and the Denver\ Aurora area doesn't even come close in comparison.
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