'He's a normal guy,' says neighbour of US sniper accused of Afghan killings

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/18/robert-bales-us-soldier-accused-of-afghan-massacre


Robert Bales, left, in 2011. Photograph: Spc Ryan Hallock/AP

The home of Robert Bales, the US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians, in Lake Tapps, Washington, stood empty last night.

The family of the 38-year-old sergeant, who has plunged US policy in Afghanistan into one of its worst crises, has been moved to Lewis-McChord army base where Bales's unit, the 3rd Stryker Brigade, has its headquarters. Now his house is up for sale.

The first journalists from a Fox news affiliate – the network that revealed his name after a six-day blackout imposed by the Pentagon – found neighbours surprised and baffled by the revelation that the man they knew as Bob was accused of massacring women and children during a murderous rampage through a village in Afghanistan's Panjwai district.

"Bob's a normal guy," former neighbour Paul Wohlberg told Fox. "Not normal now but, yeah ..." Another neighbour, Kassie Holland, told US media: "He always had a great attitude about being in the service. He seemed just like, yeah, it's my job, it's ... what I do."

[USArmyParatrooper]

1. Evidently not.

Kind of like when a serial killer's neighbors say, "He was a quiet guy. He always kept to himself. He seemed so normal!"

The same with child molesters. Very often friends and family are completely stunned when they get caught.

[Sherman A1]

3. Agreed

"he was a quiet guy.... liked guns" is the phrase I associate with the neighbors comments.

Yet, there is so much to learn about the situation, multiple tours, the brain injury in Iraq and such.

[USArmyParatrooper]

5. That's why we wait and see.

And don't take everything his attorney says like it's solid gold. His attorney has an agenda, a valid and important one but an agenda nonetheless.

[Sherman A1]

8. Agreed

But, the initial news reports sounded like an Army whitewash to me, so I take little from either side at face value. I agree that his attorney has an agenda and I hope that agenda is to vigorously defend his client as he should be doing.

[Fumesucker]

12. Everyone has an agenda...

One of the two rules I use to filter my perceptions of the world..

The other rule is that there is no such thing as accurate information, only varying degrees of inaccuracy.

[MichiganVote]

6. Serial killer? Sounds more like severe PTSD to me.

[USArmyParatrooper]

9. Pure speculation on your part.

It's possible it's related to PTSD, it's also possible that he simply had a dark side.

None of us have enough information to really know. But unfortunately many forum members have been posturing from the beginning, and assigning blame to satisfy their own political agendas.

[MichiganVote]

15. And on yours also.

[USArmyParatrooper]

16. WTF? Do you even read what you're replying to?

I said:

It's possible it's related to PTSD, it's also possible that he simply had a dark side.

None of us have enough information to really know.

What exactly am I speculating?

[TexasProgresive]

4. I'm not cutting him any slack

or my father either. My dad suffered from extreme PTSD from combat WWII. I lived in fear that something would trigger him into killing mode. It was always there under the surface. Thankfully it never happened to my knowledge. Since he was highly skilled in covert operations so there is no way to know, but I think not. If Dad had wantonly killed I would be first to say he must face the consequences.

[ChunderingTruth]

7. Excitable boy, they all said

ell, he went down to dinner in his Sunday best
Excitable boy, they all said
And he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy

He took in the four a.m. show at the Clark
Excitable boy, they all said
And he bit the usherette's leg in the dark
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy

He took little Susie to the Junior Prom
Excitable boy, they all said
and he raped her and killed her, then he took her home
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy
After ten long years they let him out of the Home
Excitable boy, they all said
And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy

[sendero]

10. Well now he can just be..

... a normal guy in prison.

I get the feeling our military leaders are just not liking what he has done to their war.

[tnvoter]

11. no one wants to think he's a monster

I bet his neighbors are in shock. Give them a few days to think about it and perhaps they will remember "signs" that were missed.
This is just a tragic story all around.

[Ecumenist]

13. Really? Compared to what? Evidently, he wasn't really normal but only appeared that way. nt

[xchrom]

14. Afghan Suspect’s Life Marked by Honors, Personal Setbacks

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-17/afghan-suspect-spoke-with-pride-of-saving-civilian-lives.html

Robert Bales, the U.S. Army staff sergeant suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians, was a decorated veteran who also experienced wounds in service and setbacks at home.

He once spoke of saving civilians when his infantry unit in the Iraq war found villagers and family members of Iraqi fighters after the 2007 Battle of Najaf, also known as the Battle of Zarqa, that left 250 insurgents dead. The American soldiers turned from fighting to saving lives, according to a military account.

“I’ve never been more proud to be a part of this unit than that day, for the simple fact that we discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then afterward we ended up helping the people that, three or four hours before, were trying to kill us,” Bales said in an interview for the 2009 report.

Yet women and children were among the 16 victims of the March 11 shootings in two villages in southern Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials who on March 16 identified Bales, a 38-year-old married father of two, as the suspect. The killings threaten to erode U.S.-Afghan relations, drain remaining U.S. and European support for the war and add pressure to speed troop withdrawals.

[Skidmore]

18. We had a conversation last night about this guy and those like

him who re-up and go back into a war zone with injuries when they don't want to return. "They do it for their buddies" is the stated reason. Well, perhaps if they didn't return, perhaps the wars would wind down because no one wants to continue to fight. This guy signed up 10 years ago, part of Bush's "fight 'em over there" brigades. I've become more than a little disgusted with the swagger and bravado and the notion that every person in a uniform is a hero. Some aren't. This man had other issues with anger management. Now whether that was PTSD or perhaps the way he was normally, I don't know. Perhaps the needed to not show up at a war after knowing the personal consequences.