generalspeaking

A Flexible Conscience

The man whom his commanding officers extolled as the very epitome of courage under fire, reliability, compassion and responsibility is the very man who, puzzlingly, left his post in Kandahar Province in the middle of the night, to approach on foot several nearby villages he was well acquainted with.

And there, entering two homes, he shot and stabbed to death Afghan children, their mothers and other adults, 16 Afghan civilians in all.

His nobility of character was exemplified by those who spoke of the 38-year-old father of two young children as having been compelled, after the dreadful events of the 9/11 attacks, to quit his financial trading job in favour of joining the military. Where he distinguished himself by being the very model of a modern American military man.

He served three deployments to Iraq with flying colours and was highly commended.

It was his fourth deployment, sent to Afghanistan, where he continued his outstanding career work as that model modern American military man. During the course of which something went dreadfully wrong with this perfectly well-adjusted man whom his comrades respected and whom his friends and neighbours back home knew as the life of the party, a kind and generous man.

Who, as it happens, will be charged tomorrow with 17 counts of murder and a number of other charges, including attempted murder in connection with the March 11 shooting deaths of Afghan civilians, according to a senior American official. Afghan authorities, needless to say, wanted him charged and put on trial, and presumably given an immediate death penalty right then and there in reflection of Afghan-style justice.

Another senior American, General John Allen, commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, has informed a congressional committee that he has ordered an "administrative" enquiry to tease out the mystery why Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, now in solitary confinement, was selected to serve with special operations troops at the Camp Belambay command outpost.

It would seem that Staff Sgt. Bales in his civilian life had some questionable run-ins with the law. An assault charge against a woman, a compulsory anger-management course, an arrest on suspicion of drunk driving and involvement in a hit-and-run accident. Obviously not quite in character with the picture of a gentle, mild-mannered local hero.

Oh, and there's the little matter of what spurred him to join the military, as well. Evidently he enlisted after being ordered by an arbitrator to pay $1.4-million in compensation for his part in participating in a fraudulent scheme and unauthorized trading as a stockbroker. He did indeed work as a trader for four years, ending in involvment in financial fraud.

Having advised a retired 74-year-old engineer from Columbus, Ohio, on investments. With that senior's retirement account of $700,000, Staff St. Bales was able to play around with investments he was obviously not professionally capable of accurately distinguishing through an investment firm he formed in 2000 with a few others, in Florida.

Ill in hospital, the retired engineer seemed not to have been aware of what was happening with his savings. His wife discovered her husband's retirement account had mysteriously shrivelled from $700,000 in 1998 to $30,000 by 2000. A most disagreeable discovery, one that definitely put Staff Sgt. Bales (at that time a civilian) out of favour with them.

A law suit ensued, and as their lawyer said: "They found fraud. I can't say it any better than that." And punitive damages were awarded because the arbitrator ruled Bales' conduct to be "fraudulent and malicious".

Labels: Afghanistan, United States

posted by Pieface @ Friday, March 23, 2012