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| Robert Bales is going to Federal Time Out with no chance of parole. He was spared the gas chamber. Nidal Hasan will likely get the gas chamber. |
Robert Bales, the Washington state man accused of shooting 16 innocent men, women and children in Afghanistan was spared the gas chamber. He was sentenced to Federal Time Out with no chance of parole. He will be joining Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning and Nidal Hasan in Fort Leavenworth.
Manning was sentenced to 35 years for leaking classified documents to Wikileaks. It was one of the worst clandestine leaks in American history. As he was sentenced he released a statement that he demands the military treat him for gender identity disorder. He wants to become a woman.
Nidal Hasan was found guilty in the shooting of fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas. He may get the gas chamber if the tribunal debates his fate. He was inspired by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American cleric who had ties to terrorism. al-Awlaki was killed in 2011. Hasan is paralyzed from the waist down after he was injured by bullet fire.
U.S. Military has been stressful on our men and women. President Barack Obama has closed the chapter on Iraq. The Iraqi's are on the verge an all out civil war since Americans left. The Afghanistan war will end in 2014. The Taliban is still stronger than ever. They've vow to overthrow the Afghan government.
The American people have decided that it's not worth it. They rather let the Middle East burn than send another military officer overseas.
Bales is a United States Army soldier who murdered sixteen Afghan civilians in Panjwai, Kandahar, Afghanistan on March 11, 2012. The incident has since been widely referred to in media reports as the Kandahar massacre.
Bales was formally charged with seventeen counts of murder and six counts of assault and attempted murder. He is currently being held in detention at Northwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
It was reported that Bales would plead guilty in return for a life sentence, avoiding the death penalty. Bales was found guilty in a plea deal on June 5, 2013. A hearing is set for August to determine whether Bales will be eligible for parole after 10 years.
That parole deal was not accepted. The court martial sentencing wasn't going to be easy on Bales. He's gotten the permanent residency treatment. He's going no where for the rest of his life.
John Henry Browne defended Bales alongside military lawyers.
Browne was retained by the sergeant's family and has described Bales as "mild-mannered", and claims his client was upset after seeing a friend's leg blown off the day before the killings, but held no animosity toward Muslims.
"I think the message for the public in general is that he's one of our boys and they need to treat him fairly."
Browne has denied that the deadly rampage was caused by alcohol intoxication or marital problems and said that Bales was "reluctant to serve."
According to Browne, Bales did not want to return to the front lines. "He wasn't thrilled about going on another deployment...he was told he wasn't going back, and then he was told he was going."
Browne has also criticized anonymous reports from government officials, stating "the government is going to want to blame this on an individual rather than blame it on the war."
According to Gary Solis, an expert on war crimes and the military justice system, an insanity defense is likely.
"It's hard to say whether the case will even go to trial because in war crimes like this it's very possible that there will be...an insanity defense, that he is unable to recognize the wrongfulness of his act because of a severe mental disease or injury".
Bales had no history of mental disorder, and had undergone an expansive mental health screening to become a sniper in 2008.
In 2010 he suffered a concussion in a car accident, underwent traumatic brain injury treatment at Fort Lewis, and was deemed healthy. Investigators examining his medical history described his 10-year Army career as "unremarkable" and found no evidence of serious traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress.
A high-ranking U.S. official told The New York Times, "When it all comes out, it will be a combination of stress, alcohol and domestic issues - he just snapped."
Under the U.S. military legal code, the death penalty was possible but required presidential approval.
Six military members are currently on death row, but none have been executed since Private First Class John A. Bennett was hanged in 1961.
So if Robert Bales snapped, it's just a random attack! If Nidal Hasan snapped, it's terrorism!
Why don't the junk food media call it what it is! Extremism.
It doesn't discriminate, it's purpose it to show fear, power and destruction on the backs of the innocent.