Major Hasan and Sgt. Bales

This past week two widely publicized military trials came to a close. In one Sgt. Bales was accused of leaving his base under cover of night and going to a nearby Afghan village and murdering 16 Afghanis in cold blood. In the other Major Hasan was charged with the murder of 13 of his brothers in arms in an attack on a base in Texas. Sgt. Bales plead guilty and was granted a reprieve from the death penalty which caused great consternation among the Afghanis whose culture called for an equivalent punishment. Major Hasan did not plead guilty but offered no defense while serving as his own counsel. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.

We can ask ourselves why was the sentence different for very similar crimes? Of course, one could argue that in one it was an American soldier killing native Muslims. In the other it was an American soldier who was a Muslim killing other Americans. We would like to believe that justice was weighed blindly and just sentences were meted out. There is much more to these incidents than the simplicity of a murder trial but that burden very likely falls on the American people and their leaders.

What were the circumstances that led to these tragedies? Why would these two men who had taken an oath to protect our Constitution veer off on such a tangential path? Sgt. Bales was on his fourth deployment. He had suffered at least one concussion as a result of his involvement in a vehicle rollover.. He was diagnosed with PTSD and had drug and alcohol problems. A good case could be made that a soldier with this kind of condition should not be sent into combat but instead should be receiving intensive treatment for his battle wounds. Just because his flesh wasn't torn does not mean he was not wounded. If this is the case then a defense of diminished capacity could have been considered.

In the case of Major Hasan, a military psychiatrist, we have a man who is asked to betray his faith and his god. For a person of faith it is an unimaginable conflict that can be resolved in very few ways. Once the decision was made to follow his faith it was a short step to desire martyrdom. Why was he placed in such an untenable position? It seems likely he joined the military in order to get his education payed for and did not contemplate actually being shipped to a war zone. It further seems that Major Hasan had been in contact with a known Al Qaeda leader for some time before the attack.

These arguments are no effort to excuse these two soldiers from responsibility for their actions. If we excuse such attacks by reason of stress, belief or other reasons then we would lose the basis for regulation of society by making it possible for anything to be excused. However, this does not mean that we should not take note of these rampages and seek to understand how to avoid them in the future.

What were the actions that led to the circumstances that befell these two men? Why would they think it was okay to express themselves by the murders of innocent people? Perhaps the warning signs of the increasing stress and irrationality by Major Hasan should have been picked up on earlier. For crying out loud, he was a psychiatrist and a Major and must have done something right before going so long. Did no one see that. As for Sgt Bales, four deployments into combat, exposure to actions known to cause problems for soldiers and substance abuse should have been warning signs. The simple truth is that during our involvement in two wars we have been pushing the edges to keep soldiers on the battle lines.

The larger question must be an examination of how and why we ended up involved in two wars against people of a Muslim faith and what did we expect to gain from the grinding sacrifice of so few asked to do so much for so many who sacrificed nothing. Even now, as we prepare for disengagement in Afghanistan, we have no clear idea of what we will leave behind to make the whole thing worth it. Very likely we will end up with the same kind of result we left in Iraq which is now in a spiral towards civil war. And as we reel from a lack of favorable strategic results we consider another foray into a morass where there is no clear tactical or strategic purpose. Without clear goals that will define the time when we achieve our objective it is impossible to wage war. We can fight and die but we will not wage any kind of war for any reasonable purpose and our military leaders know it. War must aspire to achieve political victory otherwise it is just fighting.