Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, pictured below, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of murder on Wednesday for singlehandedly killingly 16 Afghan villagers in two villages in the dark hours of the morning on March 11, 2012. The guilty plea means Bales cannot be given the death penalty.
A clear picture of “the worst mass killing by a U.S. soldier acting alone since the Vietnam War” according to NPR.org began to emerge through the testimony of surviving villagers, by live video feed, and, for the first time, testimony from Bales.
“This act was without legal justification, sir,” Bales told the judge. “There's not a good reason in this world for why I did the horrible things I did.” Yet, as AP.com reports, there were some very good reasons. Not only had Bales been suffering from PTSD and a traumatic brain injury during his 4th tour of duty, he was illicitly drinking alcohol and snorting Valium that night.
Bales claims not to remember all of his actions, which included murdering women and children, setting fire to some bodies, and, upon returning to his base, promptly confessing everything to a fellow soldier.
Reuters.com notes that repercussions of the slaughter, beyond changing the remote village forever, include straining already tense U.S.-Afghan relations and temporarily halting all military action in Afghanistan.