Be nice if someone, somewhere held Iraqis and Afghanis accountable for their actions.  Bales should be administered the appropriate military punishment for his actions which were despicable, if initial reports are accurate.  Certain Afghanis and Iraqis commit similar atrocities routinely and we don't hear a peep of criticism, even when it's other Afghanis and Iraqis doing the dying.  We get video of the celebrations when Americans die.

Didn't say it needed to be mitigated.  He should be tried, convicted if guilty, and executed if convicted.

i can't be sure why you chose to characterize bale's actions as indulgence. do you totally reject the possibility bales is profoundly ill.  are you convinced each soldier in every army on earth harbors a desire to do something similar so the only real difference between bales and his peers is they're somehow able to exercise impulse control? 

i'd hope we agree this would never have happened if bales had gone through proper channels and requested permission from his superior officers. 

dammit.  please delete #7 for me.

We have to see the record of the uS in proscecuting those charged with serious human rights violations and massacres. From Mylai to Afghanistan via Iraq the record is very poor. Not a single soldier has had to face the consequences for his actions while Bradley Mnning, the one who exposed the criminals in uniform through the leak of helicopter videos and the doucuments is likely to get death or many years in prison. Simple: you have a system that makes huge noise all over the world ablout the sanctity of human rights but is willing to look the other way when it cones to occupied territories. USA as the occupying power both in Afghanistan and Iraq must be held accoutable.

Bradley Manning is in prison and he has done nothing that deserves such barbaic treatment. Robert Bales killed 16 people including 9 children in cold blood and the US press is already begun putting up pleas for his diminished responsibility. USA has shown that it is OK to kill non while non combatants.

Bigtime. 

I wrote a long blog on the Hasan Nidal massacre too and condemned it. Let me sse if I can post the link. I do not advocate different treatment. However nidal was not part of an occupying Army. If that makes any difference then there it is. Bales was part of an Army which has become in many ways an occupying force as in Iraq.

You did at that, and I was hoping you did, but that's is about the only similarity.

Hummm, was he not in the very same US Army that is "occupying" (your term, since the US Army and NATO are presently there with the permission of the Afghan government, don't look now your bias is showing) Afghanistan?

It doesn't. For the very reason I stated above. The same for Iraq. We were asked to leave there, and did. Does that sound like occupation to you? We have military in Germany and Japan. Do you believe they are being occupied, presumably against their will?

As mentioned, you condemned Nidal.... then went on to "hypothesize" why he may have done it. No accusations of going easy (Politically Correct) on him because he is a Muslim. No indignation against Muslim "Human Rights". No mention of a kangaroo court to deal with his crime, followed by a diatribe on leaving the conflict area.

Here is the treatment Nidal received from you (I invite you to compare it with your current article).

It's my belief the two incidents (one to be fully determined) were carried out by two very disturbed men. One possibly drunk and the other drunk on his religion.

You obviously have a favorite, in the Bale/Nidal comparison, in the conflict itself. I don't have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is when you or anyone uses a tragedy to further or promote their agenda, all in the name of decency. While both your articles condemn, one seeks to offer excuses and the other tries to weave it into the larger, "evil" picture. Not very consistent IMO.

In fact in the very next line I have stated clearly that identity based radicalisation of the Armed forces must be stopped and "political correctnenss" should not come in the way as the Army must remain secular and free from identity politics.

Well, there are distinctions between the incidents but both protagonists were in the active service of the US military. One murdered his fellow servicemen of his own volition and the other murdered civilians in a foreign country outside of military control, likewise.  Whatever the legal weasels eventually barter for should not overly influence our opinions on the matter. Unless someone else was spirited in, they are guilty of the atrocities and should be punished accordingly. If our ‘justice’ system finds some mitigating circumstances that is all fine and well and should I say expected. But for me, as if I were related to any of the victims, I would accept nothing but guilty verdicts. Not sure justice is as easy to define today as it once was … but injustice seldom changes for the victims, those without enough sway anyway. Most militarily ‘domesticated’ people do not appear to be statistically equal or permitted much sway. Now what was that about terrorism???