Yeah, I think of the victim's families as well. Dad and teenage son were out at 0200 in the morning. Probably planting IEDs.

You personally know that the victim's families are insurgents? If you don't that is an incredibly offensive statement and you should be ashamed of yourself.

What news do you watch? I see stories about the Taliban practically every day.

The point being made is that he "did not" obey direct orders. He stole away. It was weak for the "chain of command" to whisk him out of the country. The great warriors of past would've open those gates back up and tossed him back out on his arse. That would send a clear signal to the others to NOT disobey standing orders.

Get us the hel out of there! They don't want us and we're only making things worse. I don't understand why this is such a difficult decision to make. We've got militants coming at us, and the few who do welcome our help are soon outraged by stupid kids who never got training on who the real enemy is doing crap like this.

I say, get the reporters out of Afghanistan and let the troops fight a war to win

Actions like this are no better than the taliban muharibun. Indiscriminate killing of innocents is not war, it's murder. The talibs will find out after they die, if not before.

Yes, I am ex military and I have studied history all my life. I believe that we should NEVER send troops into harms way without the political will to win the war and once they are on the ground they should fight like demons. We beat the NAZIs and the Japanese fanatics and we killed millions of people in order to win.

Terrible wars, BUT the Japanese were killing millions and so were the NAZIs. I do not think any sane person would not agree that Europe is better off with out the NAZIs or Asia is not better off without Imperial Japan.

War is hell and you better fight to win or do not go in the first place.

Oh and by the way, people do not just go wandering about at 0200 in the morning UNLESS they are out planting bomb...or flowers...by the moon. Wake the hell up!

I say file it under Collateral Damage and move on! We're 5x5.

Phillip - What a dumb statement. Anybody who serves in the military supports mindless slaughter?? I can't imagine any of the vets I know who are gung-ho about war. Nobody knows the pain of battle more than they do, but when they served, they did so with honor. Apparently for your right to spit on them. Don't forget it was our elected leaders who sent them.

How has the Taliban gotten a "pass?"

Caseyjane...do you EVER see the news write about the Taliban "Slaughtering" anyone? Oh, they might "kill" 14 people in an IED attack or "kill" an 8 year old boy as an example to the village or chop captured soldiers and civilians to pieces, but it is just not as "horrible" when they slaughter as a matter of policy. But if one of ours goes nuts....the world just jumps on the band wagon of the evil Americans.

The news writers SUCK!!! So one sided. Why? Are they afraid that they will piss off a moslem and end up dead like so many of their associates? Makes me wonder.

It is news because we are the big kids on the block, the Taliban are basically nobodies. Do you think that America can't take the criticism?

@MOSinEUR

I couldn't agree with you more. Why are people not wondering why so many women and children were supposedly killed and so few men. It's like you said, there were so few men and young men killed in these 2 villages, not 1 but 2 villages because they WERE out there planting these bombs and IED's. They were out there planting these things or otherwise engaged in actions they should not be doing at 2 in the morning, unless they were all 'getting it on' with each other while the women and children slept.

They were up to no good and they paid the price, chalk it up to collateral damage and move on....this story and the lies have run their course. As they said in the other story...no bodies, no autopsies, to pictures, no forensic evidence, no evidence of any kind and they can't even identify who the soldier is that supposedly killed all these people...no eyewitnesses, nothing to use to convict this guy with, and now they can't even decide how many supposed victims there were.

If this was someone in the US charged with the same supposed crime and with the so-called 'evidence' they have against him it wouldn't even make it to court......but I can see Bales being offered up as a 'sacrificial lamb' to quell the bloodlust of the cave-people and the Talibananas

We need to get out of this country already. Why are we still there?

What do they expect from someone serving numerous tour in combat watching friends die daily?

To not slaughter and incinerate innocent children in their sleep???

"What do they expect from someone serving numerous tour in combat watching friends die daily?"

Your comment does a grave disservice to the thousands of men and women who have endured multiple deployments without intentionally slaughtering innocent people.

What did the Army expect from a guy who earned a living for years stealing from the elderly?

to all of you brilliant @!$%#s! Dont judge an man till you walked a mile in his moccasins!

WilliamofRites:

What do they expect from someone serving numerous tour in combat watching friends die daily?

To not slaughter and incinerate innocent children in their sleep???

Yep, it sounds reasonable to me. He signed up for this job, when it proved too much for him, Sgt Bales should have gone AWOL (military incarceration which he will wind up with), or simply refused to hold a weapon any longer. He should have done something, any thing other than murdering people.

Really Margo, two tours of combat in Iraq and a head wound from an IED and its "to much for him". Really? You should write and thank him that you can sit safe behind your computer and write stupid trash.

Falconer: Yes, it clearly was too much for him, or he would not have snuck away from his base and gone out in the middle of the night with the sole purpose of slaughtering innocent civilians, including CHILDREN.

The problem isn't with every single inhabitant of Afghanistan. The problem is with a specific group of people, and no murderous rampage of the innocent deserves a pat on the back simply because of a war. The situation is precarious enough, and the inhumane actions of one soldier alone can readily undo any and all progress made, and send us spiralling down into an even worse problem. Killing children is enough to cause outrage in any nation, any time, and rightly so.

How can we expect anyone to view "us" as civilized and respectable if actions such as these contradict every aspect of those two things? If we want to have expectations when it comes to the conduct and actions of others, we'd better be able to practice control ourselves.

You're all acting like he's already had a trial and been convicted. They have nothing on this guy to do that with.

There are no bodies, no autopsies, no pictures, no forensic evidence, no evidence of any kind and they can't even identify who the soldier is that supposedly killed all these people...no eyewitnesses, nothing to use to convict this guy with, and now they can't even decide how many supposed victims there were.

Wait until it all comes out (if it ever will, the military are great at covering things up). You will find other than his statements there is no jury in the country (that being a normal jury not a military scape-goat one) that would convict him on thei non-existent 'evidence' they have of this supposed incident. you all are so ready to throw this guy to the wolves/animals/cave-people, whatever you want to call the Afghans without even hearing him out or giving him a trial. And for the record this trial should be public and none of this kangaroo court behind closed doors due to 'National frikkin Security' bullsh!t. Wait until all the alleged 'facts' come out and I'm hoping he gets off with it due to lack of 'evidence' and that he gets and open, public and fair trial

right on

Brice,

So you want to start executing people for crimes with no proof? So if a police officer shot a family member of yours execution style and said they confessed to a murder, you would fine with it and hug the police officer for a job well done?

i bet you are gay

Boy you sound like a real smart guy.

Bjork, bjork ...

What about the muslim major at Ft. Hood who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers while yelling Allah Akbar? I'm not hearing anybody screaming for his head. Fact is, I'm not hearing much about that story at all and it's been two years. WTF?

Since most of us Americans are compassionate, we are sympathetic for the victims in this tragedy; however that said, has the other side shown compassion for our victims at Ft. Hood? How come we don't see anything on this?Are there calls for blood from the Musilm community when the Muslims kill American innocents???

I'm tired of ignorant people like you that always want to introduce the race card at every chance that you can. It just gives other lower intellects like you that are of every color gravitate to the stupid. You are right, bigotry is alive and well in the United States as long as you keep bringing it up. You don't See any white people saying stupid things like this do you? You are ignorant and we white people don't owe you anything! Understand! We owe these poor 17 people our prayers and justice! Notice that I didn't say what color they are or were! Stupid!

Carls1bad1--ummmm, guy? You do realize that Ms. Jones did not mention race. Right? You did--was it because the image next to her name is of an (apparently) black woman?

Ms. Jones mentioned that these were not American citizens who were slaughtered, but Afghani citizens. She then said that human life was human life--whether people are citizens are not.

The term "bigotry" does not only refer to a person who is bigoted against another because of race--one can be bigoted due to religion, ethnicity (which is not "race"), nationality (which is what we are discussing in this case), sexual orientation, or even professional training.

Here is the definition of bigotry: "a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices."

I find it really interesting that you think that you know who is white and who is not on this thread--further, that you think that all the "white" people are refraining from commenting on bigotry. I seriously doubt that you are right--I am sure that the point that people who are more concerned about American lives than Afghani lives has been made by people who are white, also. They may or may not be right--but there's no reason for you to think that all the white people agree with you.

Well, unless you are yourself a racist who thinks that all people of a given race think or act the same way. Or, do you have some other reason for thinking that all the "white" people on this thread have avoided the question of national bigotry?

Well said......

Cool, remember Islam is not a race AND religion deserves all the ridicule we can dish out. Why should anyone's superstition be "respected". Bigotry against religion is a victimless crime. Besides, Islam is a totalitarian, blood-lust ideology disguised as religion. So, who cares?

Not saying he is innocent or guilty because I don't know any more then you do, but if he had done this in the U.S. we wouldn't have buried the bodies asap and the evidence would still have been there, there would have been actual proofs that he did it, DNA testing, and there would have been autopsies too. Right now it looks like there is no proof at all, there is only alleged witnesses, who say there was more then one guy.

I feel sorry for you, standing on your high ground, who are ready to sentence a man to death without even a trial, judging only from whatever you read or heard in the medias. Personally I would prefer to wait for the trial, and if found guilty then he will suffer the consequences.

The villagers are not Al Qaeda. The villagers are Afghani citizens--we are not at war with Afghanistan. We are their guests. We are allied with Afghanistan, and this includes the villagers.

We are at war with Al Qaeda--some of them are Afghani, and some of them are not. What Al Qaeda does has no reflection on what innocent villagers do.

Yes, when one is involved in what is basically a Civil War--it becomes very difficult to tell friend from foe. Here in the US, we are rather simple--we think that everyone of a given nation must be our "enemy." This has a lot to do with the fact that we haven't had a war on our soil in a long time--it is why we imprisoned Japanese citizens during WWII, and it is why our soldiers had difficulty in Vietnam telling the difference between friendlies and hostiles.

There was no reason to believe that the local villagers were hostiles. If they had been, they probably could have wiped out the given camp pretty darned quickly, as it only had a few dozen soldiers in it. That they have yet to retaliate kind of shows you that they aren't hostiles--they might not even have weapons.

There are clear rules of combat for soldiers--and, yes, some of them wind up putting the soldiers in harm's way because they aren't allowed to shoot first and ask questions later. But, you know, the soldiers volunteered, they were trained, they know the rules. This soldier violated them. I'm sure that other soldiers have, also, but this one was a big enough moron to do it in a way that he cannot hide, the military cannot create plausible deniability, and the Afghan government cannot turn a blind eye to it or explain it away. I am quite sure that both the military and the Afghan government would have preferred to ignore this.

You really are foolish not to realize that the military would have done all it could to call this all "unsubstantiated" and that the Afghan government would really have preferred to sweep it under the rug. Other atrocities have been swept under the rug--I am sure there are many, many other examples of soldiers going ballistic and shooting people that they should not have, sometimes just because they could. I'm not saying that's a good thing--but I am saying that any story that gets as far as the media, like this one, is particularly egregious. This soldier made an example of himself--and he can bear the punishment.

they are a waist of space anyway

Really "a waist of space"? Gods I hope you didn't reproduce. Our gene pool is messed up enough at this point in life.

PS-Next time invest a second in reviewing what you type.

Thank ya!

Why are you so self righteous? Muslims slaughter their children all the time. They do not care about these children. They are just more grist for the Islamic mill. Yeah, whatever.

Philipp, a review of his post would not have helped. It's one of a handful of ridiculous and meaningless comments that he recycles. He really thinks that he is using the word properly.

You are a moron! Do you think it matters what their JOBE is you are scary stupid!

What about when children are killing them? Muslims slaughter their children all the time. They do not care about these children except for the attention it gets them and how that attention promotes the professional victimization of Islam in the eyes of the world.

Enough of your "Christan" hate.

Maybe they don't, but we do ... or should.

You make me laugh. I have never served and never will because violence begets violence; that is not to say I won't defend myself in the approproiate occasion. However that being said even if he had these traumatic events occur to him, he can not use that as an an excuse to kill 17 unarmed civilians. If you find that as an excuse then I pity you and yours. PTSD is not an excuse for killing or maiming anyone. I feel the same for a mental disorder.

And as for the Liberal comment, I identify myself with no such party. Good try though. I do applaud your efforts to rationalize a useless political comment.

Our military is out of control. Ultimately we need to reevaluate our views and fix the issue of these "mentally wounded" soldiers. We create our own problems and fail to understand that we do such.

Blessed Be,

Philipp

The USA you think of is corrupt. It is not Christian based. It is pure socialism that is blooming into a anger fueled self righteous dictatorship. We the people are supposed to be in control of our own government, not the government in charge of us. Read the Constitution sometime.

Who taught them terrorism prior to the existence of Israel? Quick, dream up a lie!

Christian Crusaders. In the Middle East, it's always a Religious War. We've no business being there when our Democracy is based on SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. Hitler ran for 10 years, Israel has been running for 70. I rest my case.

Hey Racist,

Your GOPer lineup will ensure 4 more years of keeping the Christian Brotherhood Taliban out of the White House. Four more years of Separation of Church and State! Thanks so much!

So you agree, it is a religious war for the Middle East, always. Thank you very much.