Sergeant Bales: America Revisits My Lai

by Harold Fickett on March 19, 2012 · 5 comments

American Staff Sergeant Robert Bales went out the other night allegedly and slaughtered 16 Afghans, mostly women and children, then burned their bodies.  He was in Afghanistan on aMy Lai Massacre Evidence on the Road 4th deployment to a war zone, after being in Iraq three times.  He had sustained wounds during his previous tours; his family life and finances were complicated by the housing crisis.  The day before one of his fellow soldiers was crippled by the enemy.  No doubt he had learned of Afghan soldiers turning their guns on their supposed-American allies with deadly results.  He probably watched coverage of the deadly rioting that ensued after U.S. forces disposed of copies of the Qu’ran by burning.  Copies that had been used to pass notes from one terrorist to another.

Let’s face it, no one in the United States who is not a Muslim can understand the Qu’ran rioting.  Not in the least.  How can human life be less sacred than even the words of God, if those words can be reproduced?

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales snapped, it seems.  That’s all we can think.  Like Mr. Kurtz in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, he could only think, “Exterminate the brutes.”  Then, of course, he did nothing of the kind but slaughtered innocent civilians.

When I heard about this, I thought immediately, as I’m sure many Americans did, of Lieutenant Calley and the My Lai massacre of as many as 500 in Vietnam.  That horror has remained in our collective memory since 1968 because, while atrocities were rife in Vietnam, My Lai summed up the naked horror the war had become.  So many fought bravely; great efforts were expended to give the Vietnamese democratic institutions.  The Vietnamese simply did not have the will to do it, though—not enough of the Vietnamese.

Lieutenant Calley

Lieutenant Calley

In Vietnam, we found ourselves having “to burn the village down in order to save it.”  In his delusion, Sergeant Bales thought his only recourse was slaughter.

Like the Vietnamese, the Afghans don’t want the form of government we’d like to give them; they fundamentally reject the premises of western civilization, with its roots in Christianity.  The other day, when Afghan protesters burned President Obama in effigy, they also added a cross to the fire.  I haven’t heard anyone talk about that.

Clearly, we no longer have any grand purpose in mind in Afghanistan; once again, we’ve been disabused of our better intentions by the brutal reality of the world–the tragic dimension of history that Americans resist understanding again and again.

In these circumstances, President Obama should announce a fall-back position as to how we are going to project enough power in the region to remain a force for stability.  Then we ought to get our troops out of Afghanistan with all due haste—well before 2014.

Pages: 1 2

By Harold Fickett

Tagged as: Afghanistan, iraq, Karzai, Saddam Hussein, Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, weapons of mass destruction

  • Deacon Don Bourgeois

    I will not try to justify Staff Sergeant Robert Bales actions in this tragedy, but I am livid over the fact that he should not have been there. After three tours in Iraq and his injury to his head and brain and all the bloodshed he experienced, how could they have thought this poor man could not be affected and should not be in combat again. I hold the Pentagon higher ups that sent him there responsible. Of course they will look like the good guys and crucify him and He will be their scapegoat!  Please pray for him and his family.

  • Harold Fickett

     I think most of America feels the same way, Deacon Bourgeois.  We are confronted with an event stupefying in its sheer horror, and yet its perpetrator evokes sympathy as well, as someone broken by the demands of an overwhelming situation.  I would say that we as the American people have to take some responsibility for this as well because we are all too happy to let a paid military deal with the world while we occupy ourselves with trivial entertainment and gossip.

    Many times in the past few years I’ve been on airplanes with fine young soldiers, and I always think: “Are we sure that the sacrifices we are asking of these young people are justified?”  I don’t believe that our government sends people into harm’s way without careful consideration, but any miscalculation in this regard has such excruciating consequences that the debate in this country over such matters should be both more intense and far more informed than it is.  I have come to the sad conclusion, as indicated in the article, that in Afghanistan we can do no more than take strictly anti-terrorist measures.  

  • Claireoneill

    The root of the problem is politicians running the wars. Let the military do their job. These wars that drag on and on are for political reasons. War is horrible and people die- good people die and innocent people die as well as bad people and guilty people. The military men on the ground need to make the call not Washington.  No one can avoid blood shed  in war and people need to understand how gruesome it can be.

    The idea of making countries over into good democratic societies is a political idea not a  military one. The military needs to take control and to be honest all we can do is make it an occupied little America until a generation goes by and the children have grown up with American-like rights and freedoms. Then they will desire the freedoms they have grown up with. You can’t just fight leave and think it will change. You can’t remain and occupy the countries as police while they just keep playing the same tribal game.

    If we are going to war do it, over throw the country and make it an occupied holding until they know what true freedom is. Let American companies invest in them and help them rebuild. Then you show them how to run their government to benefit their country. I know of no other way.

    I  was in the Air Force Reserves right after Vietnam and was one of the first women in a combat unit to sign up to go to the front if needed, luckily I was not needed. I was not married and had no children. I had an important role to play in getting bombed out runways up and running  within 24 hours. I take war seriously and since Vietnam or before we are have been trying to make nice during war and it can’t happen. Men crack and men become heroes and neither intends to, they only intend to survive each and everyday. Families are destroyed and addictions happen all because war is an unnatural state, so do it quickly and fight hard to win not to further a cause. Fight to take control and win the war not to come to some political agreement with people that aren’t ready for democracy. Then occupy and then teach. I see no other solution, so let us all be careful before we take to going to war. The world may not like us for being occupiers but just how do these politicians think they are going to get people to change their ways when there is no other example of life but their old way? 

  • diogenes999

    “Afghanistan was the good war…”  Have any idea just how removed from Jesus-like thinking such a comment is?   

  • diogenes999

    The US went to Afghanistan to try to apprehend Osama bin Laden.  

    Because of 9/11, it was (sort of) justified in doing that.  

    But it had no brief to take it upon itself to occupy and reshape the political. religious, cultural landscape of another sovereign nation.  None at at all.  

    I am quite incensed by your arrogance, and hence I have quoted your comment on my blog and will deal with it there so as to not further disrupt this thread here.