{"id":1332,"date":"2013-06-07T13:02:47","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T03:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/?p=1332"},"modified":"2013-06-07T13:02:47","modified_gmt":"2013-06-07T03:02:47","slug":"the-business-of-slaughter-justice-served-in-afghanistan-by-tom-mcnamara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/?p=1332","title":{"rendered":"The Business of Slaughter – Justice Served in Afghanistan? by TOM McNAMARA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times recently\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will plead guilty to the murder of 16 Afghan civilians. It is believed to be part of a plea bargain arrangement worked out between his lawyer and the US government. The Army had been seeking the death penalty, and it is understood that a plea of guilty will spare Sgt Bales his life.<\/p>\n

The murder of 16 local Afghans is believed to be the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on a single U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War. At a pre-trial hearing, the prosecution stated that on the evening of March 10-11, 2012, Sgt. Bales went from house to house firing his weapon with intent to kill. Children were shot through the thighs or in the head. At one point during the massacre 11 bodies, mostly women and children, were \u201cput in a pile and put on fire.\u201d The prosecutor said that the carnage was so violent that when Sgt. Bales finally returned to base the blood of his victims had seeped all the way through his uniform and down to his underwear.<\/p>\n

John Henry Browne, Sgt. Bales\u2019 lawyer, said his client was \u201ccrazed\u201d and \u201cbroken\u201d when he walked off base in Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan and attacked the residents of two quiet nearby villages.<\/p>\n

How a lone sergeant was able to walk off an army base in the middle of the night and in the middle of a hostile zone, unmolested and unnoticed, fully armed and fully loaded, attack a nearby village and murder several civilians, return to the army base, wake up a fellow soldier, confess to what he had done, leave the base for a second time, once more unmolested and unnoticed, go to a different nearby village, murder even more Afghan civilians, and then return to the base without anyone knowing or suspecting that anything was wrong has never been fully explained.<\/p>\n

Sgt Bales was on his fourth combat tour. His defense attorney says that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and had suffered a traumatic brain injury. Witnesses from the camp also reported that Sgt. Bales, a decorated veteran of combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, had been upset over an incident that occurred 2 days earlier when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded, resulting in one US soldier losing the lower part of a leg. Unfortunately for Sgt. Bales, his attorney said that his mental state at the time did not rise to the level of \u201clegally insane\u201d and thus wouldn\u2019t help him avoid a possible death sentence.<\/p>\n

There are also reports that Sgt. Bales was drinking alcohol, snorting Valium and had been taking steroids before the attack. Once more, how this behaviour (if true) was allowed to happen on an army base in the middle of a hostile zone has never been fully explained.<\/p>\n

So in the end one sergeant will plead guilty to the murder of 16 Afghan civilians. Clearly a case of justice being served, is it not?<\/p>\n

The US is in its 12th<\/sup>\u00a0year of war in Afghanistan (longer than the Soviet Union\u2019s campaign). A key component of US strategy in the Afghanistan \/ Pakistan theatre, or \u201cAfPak\u201d as the area is commonly known, is drones. The Pentagon has about 7,000 at its disposal, with not all of them being for attack purposes. For several years now, a sustained targeted drone campaign has been carried out in an effort to weaken the \u201cinsurgents\u201d (i.e. local Afghan resistance). Since 2010 alone, at least 1100 weapons have been fired from drones in Afghanistan (as of February of this year the US military no longer gives out data on individual drone strikes in Afghanistan). The CIA even has its own private fleet of attack drones. Estimates put the number of strikes carried out by the CIA in Pakistan at 369 (317 carried out during the Obama presidency). These have reportedly killed anywhere from 411 to 884 civilians and between 168 and 197 children.<\/p>\n

A question can be asked. Who is being held accountable for the deaths of literally hundreds if not thousands of civilians killed in drone attacks carried out by the US government?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If we lived in a correct and just society, and respected the principles put forth in the founding charter of the UN, Sgt. Bales would not be the only one going to prison.<\/p>\n

He would be joined by President Obama and his administration as well as President Bush and his administration.<\/p>\n

All of whom could easily be considered as war criminals.<\/p>\n

It appears that once more America\u2019s varying standards of justice are blindingly on display.<\/p>\n

In what can only be called the \u201cInverse Nuremberg Principle,\u201d if a front line US soldier massacres innocent civilians he can expect to be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison.<\/p>\n

If the President of the United States massacres innocent civilians he can expect to have a library named after him or win a Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n

Tom McNamara<\/strong>\u00a0is an Assistant Professor at the ESC Rennes School of Business, France, and a Visiting Lecturer at the French National Military Academy at Saint-Cyr Co\u00ebtquidan, France<\/em><\/p>\n

NOTES<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cAF removes RPA airstrike number from summary\u201d by Brian Everstine, March 8, 2013, Air Force Times. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/article\/20130308\/NEWS\/303080316\/AF-removes-RPA-airstrike-number-from-summary<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cArmy Seeks Death Penalty in Afghan Massacre\u201d by Kirk Johnson, November 13, 2012, The New York Times. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/11\/14\/us\/army-seeks-death-penalty-for-robert-bales-in-massacre.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBales to plead guilty to Afghan massacre\u201d By Gene Johnson, May 30, 2013. The Associated Press, reported in Navy Times. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/article\/20130529\/NEWS\/305290032\/Bales-plead-guilty-Afghan-massacre<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDeath from afar\u201d The Economist, November 3rd-9th, 2012. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.economist.com\/news\/international\/21565614-america-uses-drones-lot-secret-and-largely-unencumbered-declared-rules-worries<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cErased US data shows 1 in 4 missiles in Afghan airstrikes now fired by drone\u201d by Alice K. Ross, March 12th, 2013, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/2013\/03\/12\/erased-us-data-shows-1-in-4-missiles-in-afghan-airstrikes-now-fired-by-drone\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cGet the Data: Obama\u2019s terror drones\u201d by Chris Woods, February 4, 2012, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/2012\/02\/04\/get-the-data-obamas-terror-drones\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPredator Drones and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)\u201d September\u00a0 26, 2012, The New York Times. Accessed at:http:\/\/topics.nytimes.com\/top\/reference\/timestopics\/subjects\/u\/unmanned_aerial_vehicles\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPretrial Hearing Starts for Soldier Accused of Murdering 16 Afghan Civilians\u201d by Kirk Johnson, November 5, 2012, The New York Times. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/11\/06\/us\/hearing-begins-for-robert-bales-accused-in-afghan-murders.html?_r=0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cProsecutors seek death for U.S. soldier charged in Afghan rampage\u201d by Bill Rigby, November\u00a0 5, 2012, Reuters. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2012\/11\/06\/us-usa-afghanistan-trial-idUSBRE8A407T20121106<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cProsecution Cites Revenge as Motive for Afghan Massacre\u201d by Neal Karlinsky and Luis Martinez, November 5, 2012, ABC News. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/prosecution-cites-revenge-motive-afghan-massacre\/story?id=17646561#.UKY5j4aoEsc<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPrinciples of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the N\u00fcremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal, 1950\u201d Report of the International Law Commission covering its Second Session, 5 june \u2013 29 July 1950, Document A\/1316. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.icrc.org\/ihl.nsf\/full\/390<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSoldier Is Expected to Plead Guilty in Afghan Massacre\u201d by James Dao, May 29, 2013, The New York Times. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/05\/30\/us\/staff-sgt-robert-bales-to-plead-guilty-in-afghan-massacre.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Moral Case for Drones\u201d by Scott Shane, July 14, 2012, The New York Times. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/07\/15\/sunday-review\/the-moral-case-for-drones.html?ref=opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Charter of the United Nations\u201d June 26, 1945. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/documents\/charter\/intro.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cU.S. hearing on Kandahar massacre to include video testimony from Afghans\u201d by Laura L. Myers, October 12, 2012, Reuters. Accessed at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2012\/10\/13\/us-usa-afghanistan-trial-idUSBRE89C01720121013<\/a><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times recently\u00a0reported\u00a0that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will plead guilty to the murder of 16 Afghan civilians. It is believed to be part of a plea bargain arrangement worked out between his lawyer and the US government. The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[124,38,44,34],"tags":[458,133,87],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":2318,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ttSq-lu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1333,"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332\/revisions\/1333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}