Real life experiences to inform.In my excitement,I just wanted to pass the info forward. maybe My experience can help another. I Believe their Nothing wrong in learning something new and pushing oneself to explore and to always DO better in perfecting yourself everyday!!!
INT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. (AP) — The American soldier charged with killing 16 Afghan civilians during nighttime raids on two villages last year pleaded guilty Wednesday then described shooting each victim, telling a military judge there is "not a good reason in this world" for why he did it.
To avoid the death penalty, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales pleaded guilty to multiple counts of murder at the hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle. He then read from a statement in a clear and steady voice, describing his actions for each killing in the same terms.
Bales, 39, said he left the remote base where he was posted in southern Afghanistan in March 2012, and went to the nearby villages of mud-walled compounds. Once inside, Bales said he "formed the intent" of killing the victims, then shot each one.
"This act was without legal justification, sir," Bales told the judge while seated at a defense table, his handles folded in front of him.
At one point, the judge, Col. Jeffery Nance, asked Bales why he committed the killings.
Bales responded: "Sir, as far as why — I've ask that question a million times since then. There's not a good reason in this world for why I did the horrible things I did."
Most of the victims were women and children, and some of the bodies were burned. Relatives have told The Associated Press they are irate at the notion Bales will escape execution for one of the worst atrocities of the Afghanistan war.
The judge still must decide whether to accept his plea.
Nance also questioned Bales about the burned bodies. The soldier said he remembered there being a kerosene lantern in one of the rooms, and he recalled there being a fire and having matches in his pocket when he returned to the base. But Bales said he didn't remember setting the bodies on fire.
Nance pressed him on whether he set the bodies on fire with the lantern, and Bales replied: "It's the only thing that makes sense, sir.'"
Defense attorney Emma Scanlan earlier entered Bales' pleas on his behalf. She entered one not guilty plea, to a charge that he impeded the investigation by breaking his laptop after he was taken into custody.
Although Wednesday's proceedings provided Bales' account for the first time, survivors who testified by video link from Afghanistan during a hearing last fall vividly recalled the carnage.
A young girl in a bright headscarf described hiding behind her father as he was shot to death. Boys told of hiding behind curtains as others scrambled and begged the soldier to spare them, yelling: "We are children! We are children!" A thick-bearded man told of being shot in the neck by a gunman "as close as this bottle," gesturing to a water bottle on a table in front of him.
Prosecutors say that before dawn on March 11, 2012, Bales slipped away from Camp Belambay in Kandahar Province, armed with a 9 mm pistol and M-4 rifle outfitted with a grenade launcher.
He first attacked one village of mud-walled compounds, Alkozai, then returned to the base, woke up a fellow soldier and told him about it. The soldier didn't believe him and went back to sleep. Bales then left to attack a second village, Najiban.
The massacre prompted such angry protests that the U.S. temporarily halted combat operations in Afghanistan, and it was three weeks before Army investigators could reach the crime scene.
Bales was serving his fourth combat deployment and had an otherwise good if undistinguished military record in a decade-long career. The Ohio native suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury, his lawyers say, and he had been drinking contraband alcohol and snorting Valium — both provided by other soldiers — the night of the killings.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers considered the plea deal a win-win. Military law experts had suggested that given his prior deployments and apparent PTSD, it was unlikely a jury would sentence him to death. And Browne had sought to place blame with the military for sending Bales back to war in the first place.
Nevertheless, the death penalty remained a possibility that Bales and his attorneys wanted off the table. Prosecutors were able to secure a premeditated murder conviction, which might have been difficult at trial given that Bales snapped.
Ultimately, that leaves the sentence as the only question: whether Bales will get life with the possibility of parole or without it. A jury is scheduled to decide that in August.
Planet Earth 2012, As the other countries laugh at us in the USA has anyone stop and wonder why??? So you be the judge, you decide. But from what I know to be common sense when too many are being corrupt the balance of all things become corrupt and there is no balance POLITICS want to scare you and start a stupid and another war ... As Well try to hide the facts. I think since seem to be so concern about the children then why don't they start the war ON HUNGER, NOT GUNS!
AMERICA CAN'T EVEN FEED THE KIDS IN OUR COUNTRY! NO MYTH, ITS FACT!
Aye Sarita's My True Secrets in Controlling Anger and Temper based on my experiences
For all that don't know I was born with an disorder Manic Depressant Bipolar and Dislectxa but i don't allow my disorder to control who I am As a person or all the things I am able of doing
I believe alot things we as a person is really mind over matter ability.. so I wanted to share my secrets with others
after .... clearing my head, and processing how I feel, After LONG Thinking ... HERE IS MY THOUGHT in the response to this horrible event, NOT taking guns from OWNERS, OR PROMOTING others to BUY GUNS,
SIMPLY PUT.......
OWNING UP TO THE IRRESPONSIBILITY OF OWNING A GUN!
THRU FULL GUN EDUCATION(history, safety, mechanics, all cons in having a
gun, etc , DEFENSE TRAINING, Mental Evaluation of the entire household,
Prior to in the owning of the gun, BECAUSE....
GUNS ARE NOT TOYS!
The people NEED to CONTROL the People NOT the CORRUPTED SELF CLOSED
MINDED INTERESTED FOOLS, WHO only concern is to keep the power they
have, that child shouldn't of never been able get that gun, SEE THUR there INVOKING OF FEAR BULLSH***, there has already been regulation on clearance of a background of the entire of before the purchase of an fire
arm as well as completion of gun safety
People we must THINK before we ACT, DON'T let OUR EMOTIONS define our Actions A racial and sensible choice is better than a foolish choice!
Sorry I wasn't here lately, but with all that's been going on I had to
clear my head and process all i was feeling and let go of it and then
relaxed and rested, and my mind is clear and awakened,
The REAL PROBLEM in all this is this IMPROPERLY SECURING your gun and
having a kid get it and accidentally shoot someone, AND HAS BEEN A
PROBLEM for a long time,
With in that I say this, IF person, LACKS COMMON SENSE, LACKS a HUMBLE
HONEST HONORABLE Impersonally in well being of DECISIONS, and LACK
the ABILITY to CONTROL THERE EMOTIONS.......
SHOULD NOT HAVE, OR OWN, OR PROCESS A GUN!
GUNS ARE NOT TOYS, AND SHOULD BE VERY LAST USE A OF SURVIVAL NOT THE FIRST!
PEOPLE SHOULD prepare them self how to DISARM a GUN,
NOT the urge to have a gun, When you know how to due this your threat is
kindly to bring you the tool you need if, that's has to be the ending
result.
I HAVE SOLVED ALLOT THREATS WITH MY WORDS, OR AT THE MOST WITH MY HANDS......
NEVER ONCE HAVE I HAD TO USE A GUN...
Think for yourself, don't let others think for us...
