Sergeant Robert Bales

Post traumatic stress disorder is a very real, very damaging thing, especially among those who have served in a war zone. There’s a lot to be learned about it from listening to the real experiences of those who have been immersed in the unimaginable.

Don't go looking for an excuse for the Afghanistan massacre behind this nice front door… Picture: AP

But you know what - we don’t need to learn it from Sergeant Robert Bales. There’s nothing about his financial stresses, or alleged marital difficulties, or level of disgruntlement with his military bosses over his most recent deployment to Afghanistan to in any way explain the acts he’s accused of.

I don’t care that his house was on the market for $50,000 less than he’d paid for it. I don’t care that his foot hurt. And couldn’t give a toss that his friends are grieving over how “our Bobby” snapped. While it’s normal to look for an explanation for horrific things - some of what we’re hearing about Bales sounds more like an excuse.

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  • Fake Oakleys says:

    01:17pm | 14/07/12

    Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You definitely know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something informative to… Read more »

  • wangaratta boi says:

    11:14am | 26/03/12

    war crimes happen. no-one knows whos the enemy and whos the civillian in afghan the locals are the same people who fire mortars and rifles at you at night. and during the day act inocent when a patrol is out during the day. look at the russians in the 80s… Read more »

 

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