John Browne said Friday that he has refused to let his client participate in what’s known in the Army as a 706 Board or “sanity board.” His client is Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, who stands charged by the U.S. Army with murdering 17 Afghan civilians outside Kandahar last month during a nighttime of fury.
As I noted here a …
For years, the military services had an unnerving tendency to declare to their funders on Capitol Hill just what their old mean defense secretary wouldn’t let them have. It has always struck Battleland as a little too close to kids crying over what Santa failed to bring them. We noted three years ago that then-defense secretary Robert …
Some Army families think their soldiers deploy too much. Some Army families have it tougher, in some ways: their soldier has never deployed. Army spouse Jenny Williams writes about it in Sunday’s New York Times’ “Modern Love” …
Army Lieut. Colonel David Oclander knows a thing about trying to turn lemons into lemonade in Afghanistan:
In 2010 I was responsible for the accidental death of two little girls in a remote village in Southern Afghanistan. The events occurred in a village that sat in the middle of a critical valley that the Afghan Army and my
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Since my first post March 20 about the possibility that Staff Sergeant Robert Bales may have been on the anti-malaria drug Lariam (mefloquine), I have received many comments and e-mails on the issue. Bales has been charged with murdering 17 Afghan civilians last month outside Kandahar.
There is a lot more in the literature since a …
…the lead item (click on it to enlarge) in Monday’s contract announcement list from the Pentagon. More than $2.5 billion for bullets. Trust they’re getting the quantity discount. We’ve asked just how many bullets you get for that kind of money, and we’ll share the answer when we get it.
UPDATE: “The contract announcement …
If – and it’s a big if — Staff Sergeant Robert Bales became psychotic after taking mefloquine, it wouldn’t be the first time. In fact, there have been confirmed cases of psychosis and aggression in Afghanistan directly …
Reporter Yalda Hakim of Australia’s SBS network has the first report from the villages where Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales allegedly killed 17 Afghan civilians on March 11. It includes interviews with some of the survivors, including an eight-year old girl. Kind of brings into focus the banality of evil that Hannah Arendt wrote …
This doesn’t happen very often:
1. An Iraqi made IEDs during the most violent years of the conflict.
2. One of his bombs may have killed four members of the Pennsylvania National Guard in 2005.
3. The bomb-builder, …
The Afghan who killed Air Force Lieut. Colonel John Darin Loftis in the Kabul interior ministry February 25 remains uncaptured. Thankfully, documentary filmmaker Micah Garen was able to capture some video of Loftis, now posted on the New York Times website, before he was killed. Godspeed, Colonel Loftis.
The heartbreak of the 17 Afghans allegedly murdered by Staff Sergeant Robert Bales continued to unfold Monday morning as his wife, Kari, appeared on NBC’s Today show to say “He did not do this…this is not what it appears to …
Just how heavy a rucksack is carrying the name Patton around on your back? Benjamin Patton, grandson of World War II’s legendary General George Patton, has sat himself down and written a book on the very topic.
Growing Up Patton: Reflections on Heroes, History, and Family Wisdom distills Ben Patton’s views on the general, much of it …
What’s next in the case ofArmy Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, formally charged Friday with murdering 17 Afghan civilians? I will not try to answer that question regarding the courtroom proceedings. But what I can discuss is the normal military procedure for assessing competency to stand trial, and criminal responsibility at the time of …
