Sergeant Robert Bales: Made in the USA

For the unaware, Sergeant Robert Bales is accused of murdering 16 Afghan citizens in cold blood in March of 2012. The case against Bales is currently in the status of determining if there is enough evidence for a court-martial. Bales was trained at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington - he is far from the first to be accused of cold-blooded murder that was trained on that base, which should signal a problem to those in authority.

Bales is a soldier that could easily define my last post on this blog. His enlistment date is November 8, 2001. This was his fourth deployment to the Middle East, with the first three to Iraq. He is a poster child of the Bush administration and its statements that, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," and clearly viewed the victims as not with us at all.

We should be wondering how many murders Sergeant Robert Bales committed during his 3 deployments to Iraq. I can guarantee that his mindset did not just happen more than a decade after joining the US Armed Forces and on his fourth deployment to the Middle East. There were warning signs and obviously, if we view his lengthy awards list, those signs were ignored by many people.

We should also be wondering how many lesser versions of Bales are walking around in Iraq and Afghanistan today and have walked around over the last decade. Murder 16 innocent people in cold blood and it becomes major news, but kill one here and one there and, well, no one really notices except for the grieving relatives left behind.

His wife defends him and claims that there is no way he committed these cold-blooded murders. That is her job and to be expected; however, I am shocked that she is smiling while stating her defense and at the same time claiming that her, "heart goes out to the families that lost loved ones".

While Bales denies remembering anything that happened that night, his words to fellow soldiers reveals something entirely different. Kudos to those soldiers that came forward and testified to his true mindset and his actual statements. They are the real soldiers and Bales is something else. While he is only accused at this point, there is also DNA evidence and eyewitness testimony to his comings and goings on the night of the murderous rampage.

This reminds me of cases that Paul Bergrin defended in past, prior to the US DOJ pursuing him over false allegations. In one such case, Begrin brought-up the Rules of Engagement and I must wonder if that is a theory that we will hear from the Bales defense at a later date. The victims were innocent, but often such victims are referred to as collateral damage, or "collateral murder" in the case of the video allegedly released by Bradley Manning in which journalists were gunned-down in the streets.

As the preliminary hearing winds down today, his First Sergeant (Vernon Bigham) testified via video-link from Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan. I do expect to see court-martial recommended in this case as the evidence demands it. As a person against the death penalty, I hope this is taken off the table and life imprisonment without any possibility of release is substituted. You see, I despise Bales and murderers like him, but do not wish death on anyone - a major difference between me and my detractors. I seek peace - not death and war.

Bales is currently being housed in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas at the same military prison as hero Brad Manning.

# The Children of Tomorrow #

The song Wind of Change written by Klaus Meine of the Scorpions references the "children of tomorrow" with hope for a better future. For me it signifies German reunification, as it did for the Scorpions when it was written, as far as I am aware. I spent my later childhood, teenage and early adult years in Germany and the destruction of the Berlin Wall was a significant moment in time for me, though I was in the US by then (9 November 1989 is a recognized date).



As an adult in the US, when I watched areas of the Berlin Wall picked apart one piece at a time on television, I cried and cried. There was so much hope for the future back then and it was the end of Checkpoint Charlie, a crossing that I had gone through numerous times as a child.

As a teenager I had friends from the East - East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Russia. A lady by the name of Helena that I lived with used to bring people from different places home and really I had no clue where she found them, but it was cool to get to know people from other cultures. Not to generalize, but all of the people I met from Poland sure could drink wodka (vodka).

Helena taught me to speak German using comic books and television. There was little on tv in English. I recall US Armed Forces Europe station that had a couple of shows a week from the US, but that was about it back in the 70s. There was one show that was famous in the US called "Family" and in German it was, "Eine Amerikanische Familie," and many Germans I knew back then thought that this is how American families in the US were in real life. Sort of funny when you think about it and completely Hollywood. lol

There was so much hope for the future back then, during the Cold War. I have decided that cold wars are far better than hot ones as we have going today. At least millions of people were not killed and it was more spy games than anything else. I feel little hope for the future today, though this may be my age (52) speaking; I doubt it though because I do not know anyone that has much hope for the future. Those in their 20s today (in the US) see little to look forward to. Life is different.

This little walk down memory lane is the result of the terrible US military mess that's been going on for over 10 days now. I think about these people involved and realize how very different they are, how everything is about luxury and money, money, money. Most people are so fake today. They accept war, death, drones, Guantanamo camps, extraordinary rendition, US prison camps in remote and faraway places, wiretaps without warrant, and so much more without much thought. Of course all of the people are not like this, but few dare to speak in our population, if they are concerned.

What really gets me is that so many consider this freedom and the US a free country with all sorts of freedoms. Hell, they obviously need to get out and see the rest of the world. Believe me, I would if I could. I'd be out of here in a NY minute, as the saying goes, and I'd never come back again.

I suppose that prior to this current fiasco, I thought that these people really believed the BS they talk publicly about war and terrorists etc... I figured they were all just plain ignorant to the fact that illegal invasions of sovereign nations create terrorists. When I realized that really it is just one big flippin' party circuit, well, it was enlightening. Even they do not believe what they state publicly. It's all about big bank accounts and money - lots and lots of money.

No, I do not feel bad at all about ridiculing their groupies. The fact is that that woman in Tampa (yeah you already know her name) was allowed to ride the coattails of highest ranking military / CIA officers in the US. She got to sip champagne, fly on a special US military jet, and use the non-profit categorization to party - somewhere around $43K was spent on "entertainment" - while claiming to do some sort of cancer research and sucking-up to the top brass in the country and attemping to put together $multi-million deals. According to her, US General sought her assistance. Meanwhile, people like me have no access to any health care whatsoever.

Bradley Manning suffers in some crappy US government hellhole because he exposed the root of the big party and what they really do. Jeremy Hammond suffers in some federal lockup because he's accused of exposing the flourishing intelligence community of Stratfor, while they're all paid the big$s to spy on all of us. Well, their spying sure bit them all in the ass last week, now didn't it? I bet they wish there were checks and balances in place now, don't they?

When the people looked to President Obama for answers about the fiasco, the first thing he did was thank everyone involved for their exemplary service. Sort of makes you want to puke, doesn't it?

I will always love the song by the Scorpions, but all hope is lost in my eyes and the children of tomorrow have nothing good to look forward to in the future. As long as all of the major participants in this War on Terror are raking in the big$$$$s and partying on military jets, they have no reason or desire to end it. As long as the groupies flock to the war party, that party will live on without ending.

On that note dear blog readers, I will be taking leave of this blog for some time. I may return in a week or a month or never.