Sergent Bales Will Plead Guilty to Murders

The US Army sergeant that went berserk on a one man search and destroy mission in Afghanistan will plead guilty to multiple murder to avoid the death penalty. Sixteen villagers were killed in their huts on the night of March 11, 2012, and then their bodies burned by Staff Sergeant Robert Bales in the worse war crime of the Afghanistan war. He is scheduled to enter guilty pleas on June 5th at Joint Base Lewis-McCord, Washington to avoid his own execution. According to his lawyer, Bales will admit to "very specific facts" concerning his attacks and is contrite about the murders. Bales' defense team determined he would be unable to mount a convincing defense of insanity or diminished capacity at the time of the attacks. Bales walked from his compound past guards to two nearby villages in the middle of the night to attack sleeping residents. He had been drinking heavily and snorting Valium as well as taking steroids prior to the attacks. Bales returned to Camp Belambay after his first sortie and confessed his crime to a sleepy fellow soldier. Ignored, Bales left again and continued the slaughter. Most of his victims were women and children. He was on his fourth deployment to a combat zone when he became uncontrollably homicidal. He is married and the father of two children. The US military judicial system has not executed a member since 1961. The United States was forced to suspend combat operations due to angry local reaction to news of the massacre. Reaction in Afghanistan to the plea deal was also swift and angry. A man who had eleven family members killed by Bales said there will be retaliation against American soldiers if Bales is not executed.