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Sgt. Bales a scapegoat

Thu., April 5, 2012

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales now faces the possibility of the death penalty for what happened in Afghanistan.

Since our government has been on an agenda of reducing our forces, this has resulted in our troops having to be sent back to hostile areas multiple times. There simply aren’t enough left to do otherwise.

The government’s attitude seems to be “If we don’t get them maimed or killed the first time, let’s send them back until we do.” Bales had already been wounded. Can we really expect our troops to hold up to this kind of treatment?

He needs help and may never be able to return to society, but how cowardly of our government to lay the blame on him and use him as a scapegoat.

Tom Starr

Spokane

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