Posted on 08/25/2013 1:38:22 PM PDT by lee martell
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who pleaded guilty to killing 16 Afghans in a shooting spree last year, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole, legally ending an episode of one of the worst atrocities of the Afghanistan war. The Jury of six soldiers deliberated for less than two hours before reaching their conclusion.
Many are saying the Bales did not receive very good defense representation. There is surprise that the Post Traumatic Stress Defense was not employed by defense attorney, John Henry Browne. Mr. Browne's reply to that was; "We didn't want to open that door, Because then, you get into a battle of the experts, and I don't think juries like that." It is likely that Robert Bales and family are too shaken by this entire matter to think critically or question the wisdom of his attorney. One would be inclined to expect your defense attorney to do all that was legally possible to allow for some possible consideration of parole in the future.
I supported the first Iraq war and the actions in Afghanistan. What reduced my enthusiasm was knowing that the U.S. Military made a policy of sending soldiers back to those same hot spots again and again and again. This happened in some cases, even when that enlisted's contractual active duty was over, and they should have been re-assigned elsewhere. Why would they stridently break their word by recycling our warriors this way? A primary reason for this recycling is likely because not enough qualified young people are volunteering for the military. When you remove all the morbidly obese couch potatoes, the gang bangers, the super-sensitives who cannot take the rigors of drills and rules, there aren't many left. Those left end up doing the jobs of two or three personnel in more populated times, and they may not make a career out of the military as often as in the past. Marriages can easily break down when spouses are unexpectedly separated for years.
We will probably need to reintroduce the draft, is my feeling. An added advantage to the draft (for both men and women) is that there will be a few less million unemployed people with too much time on their hands. For some, serving two years in the service will help them and their enabling families to finally grow up.
Somebody who doesn't feel the need to have to brag about my military experience in an effort to claim moral superiority......
I’d have to say he’s the exception to the rule, but that’s what made America from it’s founding onward... exceptions to the rule.
Actually I wasn't, that was a separate military judge, military jury and military judgment...............
Evidently those facts escaped you........not surprised.
You can continue to play general in the old paradigm but I see where lays the new battlefields. I strongly suggest that no one allow themselves or their kids to be drafted for the future wars of our country as it now functions.
You insinuated that I was a draft dodger. I cleared the air on that by stating the facts. Facts ain’t bragging. Talking about all the women I had in various ports would have been bragging.
As far as moral superiority goes, I never claimed it, and would posit that your attack on me reeked of it. Either way. I am surely not morally superior, merely sure of where the military is heading and damned sure that it will not be a moral place to be in the near future.
I agree with you on the draft. Way too many young people have no idea what to do with their lives after they finally get kicked out of mommy and daddy’s house at the age of 30.
I don’t think that the United States Army of WWII, at 93% draftees, or the 72% draftee military of WWI was just lucky to have a few exceptions.
There were alternatives, like increasing wages & benefits. But why should anyone have joined? GWB wanted America to feel good about itself, and not make any sacrifices. So we didn’t increase taxes to pay for the war, we didn’t explain WHY there was a war...for the most part, we tried to pretend we were not at war.
The recruiting offices were operating without anyone at the top of the government making the case to join.
This was from a 2004 NPR report:
“Currently, there are 499,000 active duty Army troops, backed up by 700,000 National Guard and Army reservists. That’s a third less than when the U.S. fought its last big war in the Persian Gulf, in 1991...
...LT. GEN. JOHN VINES, U.S. Army: Many of our forces have been deployed for a year; some are on their second deployment. And so, right now, the demands on the individual soldier are enormous...
...The new pressures on the Army recently led a bipartisan group of 128 members of the house to call on President Bush to increase the Army’s overall size, called end strength, and to reduce the time reservists must spend on active duty. Republican Heather Wilson of New Mexico is a leader of the effort.
REP. HEATHER WILSON, R-N.M.: I think all of us are concerned that we’re going to see back-to-back combat deployments for American military personnel. And you can’t sustain that for very long without acknowledging forthrightly that we need to increase the end strength of our active duty people in order to meet the needs of the continuing war on terrorism.
KWAME HOLMAN: The Pentagon’s top leaders agree the Army is busy, but say that doesn’t mean its size should be increased. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers.
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff: One of the most expensive things you can do in the department of defense is hire somebody. Sixty percent of our budget is in the personnel line. So with health care, all that ... all those pieces, it’s a very expensive solution, and it’s not a solution that comes on line right away...
...KWAME HOLMAN: The Army estimates that each 10,000-soldier increase costs $1.2 billion a year. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he’s open to growing the Army, but last month he said he wasn’t convinced of the need.
DONALD RUMSFELD: If at any moment there was an analysis that suggested one of the services was too small, obviously we would recommend an increase in it. We just don’t have that kind of analysis at the present time...
...JIM LEHRER: Today, Secretary Rumsfeld acknowledged the Army is stretched thin because of Iraq. But again, he said a permanently bigger Army may not be the answer to a temporary problem.”
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june04/army_1-13.html
Yet you blindly take their word for it.
Congratulations.
BULLSHIT. BULLSHIT. BULLSHIT. The women's lib hippy feel good nonsense recruited women into the military. Socialists that think the military is the perfect place to conduct social experimentation recruited females into the military.
The all volunteer military isn't self-destructing....it is being intentionally destroyed from the outside. It isn't some Lance Corporal that decided to repeal DADT and pack the ranks with faggots. It isn't some Sgt deciding the Marine Corps needs to drop to a troop level of 150,000. It isn't a Capt deciding the Army needs to cut all those combat brigades.
It wasn't the troops that decided women should be in the infantry and special forces. Tell me, if the Army is dropping combat brigades and the Marine Corps is dropping infantry battalions, just how the hell do you explain there is a lack of men and therefore a need for women in these positions? How is it.? Please by all means enlighten me, when they are FORCING MEN OUT THAT WANT TO STAY!
The draft would be more expensive to maintain than the volunteer force. While service members receive benefits and incentives to enlist/re-enlist, today's military is highly technical......a two year turnover on draftees removes continuity and hinders operational capability.
For a Marine it is 3 months of recruit training, leave, and another month of combat training....before they ever get to their MOS school, which can be up to a year long - that's nearly 1 1/2 years and millions of dollars in training before their first day on the job.
For grunts, it is 3 months of RC, leave, and 2 mos of infantry school before they ever hit the fleet .......and usually 6 months+ before they, and their unit, are certified and shipped off on deployment. That's about a year for a brand new Marine to deploy for 6-7 months.....and then the end of of their draft time under your timetable.
We lost over 400,000 in WWII and nearly 60,000 in Vietnam with draftees. After over 10 years in Iraq and Afghanistan - less than 8,000. That is a direct reflection of willing people that are able to turnover skills and experiences (including advances in medicine that allow the injured to live through what would have previously killed them) and work in concert.
Not to mention, just conducting the background checks for upper level security clearances can run upwards of $50,000 - each serviceman.
In short the constant turnover and recycle would be MORE expensive under the draft.
If you want to know "who" is destroying the military, smile at the people you pass on your way to the grocery store, or pass at the mall. They voted for it.
Take a pill. The guy snapped in a pisspot where the inhabitants have absolutely no loyalty to anybody. Bales should be institutionalized in a serious mental health facility, not thrown in prison. I mean, as far as I know he had no criminal record and this was his first offense. Calley only served three-and-a-half years of house arrest for killing 22 villagers.
Exactly. The former "America" committed suicide.
Yet the draft worked for 32 years, and kept costs down and females out, and we didn’t need 42 year old enlistees.
Then you also blindly support the Wehrmacht? After all YOU weren't there either were you?
Congratulations.......
First you say I’m Godless and now you call me a Nazi.
How very special.
He killed 16 people, 9 of whom were children and you merely view it as "his first offense"????????....
Sorry bro, the guy is a murderer and a military court with a jury of his peers have found him guilty.
While I would have given him the death penalty, he got his justice, life in prison where he can get all the counceling and mental health care you feel he needs............
I have been wondering how much time Calley served...seems Bales should have the same kind of sentence, but definitely NOT life without parole.
Seems to me that an example is being made of Bales to prove to the muzzies that we “really are their friends” (who cares? their Koran and radical islamists are all about forcefully spreading their ideology to the world, and exterminating Christians and Jews and anyone who gets in their way).
Our country is in such deep $&!# that we have inhaled the cr@) and think that’s way things are supposed to smell. We are rotting from within...
Are you saying that YOU WERE there and that all the testimony by his fellow soldiers were lies?
You're willing to condemn all the soldiers under his command who testified against him as liars in order acquit an individual who murdered 16 people, 9 of whom were children?
What kind of a person are you anyway?
LOL
And while in your mind cost in dollars were down - the cost in blood and lives was exponentially higher and the capability and technical nature was nowhere near what it is today.
Again - Politicrats put women in the military. The number of current women is quite small comparatively.
In fact, the military recruiters are FORCED to seek out women and get them to join; as in there are QUOTAS for women enlistees. And again, the point you ignore - there is not a NEED for them to be there.
Furthermore, I'd rather serve with willing able bodied men than someone forced to be there. I think after four combat tours I can make that assessment.
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