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Washington Solider Suspected In Killings

Attorneys John Henry Browne, right, and Emma Scanlan, second from right, talk to reporters, Thursday, March 15, 2012, in Seattle. Browne and Scanlan will be representing a U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians. (Ted Warren / Associated Press)
Attorneys John Henry Browne, right, and Emma Scanlan, second from right, talk to reporters, Thursday, March 15, 2012, in Seattle. Browne and Scanlan will be representing a U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians. (Ted Warren / Associated Press)

Attorneys John Henry Browne, right, and Emma Scanlan, second from right, talk to reporters Thursday in Seattle. Browne and Scanlan will be representing a U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

After five days cloaked in military secrecy, the U.S. soldier suspected in a massacre of 16 Afghan civilians has been identified as a Washington state father of two who underwent anger management counseling a decade ago after an arrest for assault on a girlfriend. The soldier accused in the killings is Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, 38, (above left) his lawyer confirmed Friday. Bales is from Lake Tapps, Wash., a community set amid pine trees surrounding a reservoir about 35 miles south of Seattle. Bales is married, a father of two young children who was in the midst of his fourth tour in a war zone. Neighbors described him late Friday as good-natured and warm, and recalled seeing him playing outside the family’s modern split-level with his children, ages 3 and 4/Adam Geller, AP. More here.

Question: What should be done with this soldier, if found guilty of these killings?



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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