At Home, Asking How ‘Our Bobby’ Became War Crime Suspect

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/us/sgt-robert-bales-from-small-town-ohio-to-afghanistan.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 8:49 AM
Subject: re: At Home, Asking How ‘Our Bobby’ Became War Crime Suspect
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   There is much we don't know about the killing of civilians in Afghanistan and much that we will never know. But questions about sergeant Bales come down to a binary; could we have predicted this from sgt. Bales, or not? If we could--i.e. if he was what we used to call "an ox that is known to gore"--then his commanding officers are guilty of putting all around him in peril.  If this was nothing we could have seen from Bales--if this was just what the war experience does to some people--then none of our servicemen and servicewomen should be trusted with weapons. For their own safety, for the safety of our Afghan and NATO allies, for the safety of our sons and daughters who serve along side them, all should stand down until we understand this.

Barry Haskell Levine