The August 2013 trials of two ranking U.S. military officers, Sgt. Robert Bales and Maj. Nidal Hasan, spotlight the human factor lost in the United States, and the bias and distortion within the media and military itself.
Both men were seasoned officers in the U.S. Army. Both committed barbaric murders and both suffered severe mental stress prior to the massacres they committed, yet they were treated vastly differently by their juries and the mainstream media. Bales received a life sentence and sympathy, while Hasan received a death sentence and propaganda, not by virtue of legal standing, but simply due to religion. The disparity is atrocious.
Early in the morning on March 11, 2012, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales left his base in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. He walked to a nearby village where he shot and killed a sleeping mother and three children. He then returned to his base, added a pistol to his arms supply, and went to a second village. He opened fire on the families sleeping there, killing 12 more — two mothers, one grandfather and nine more children, five from the same family — and injured many more.
Bales stacked the bodies in one room, and lit them on fire. He then walked back to his base with what prosecutor Lt. Col. Jay Morse said was “the methodical, confident gait of a man who’s accomplished his mission,” per video evidence. Bales claimed upon return to his base “My count is 20,” in reference to the number of people he thought he had killed. It became known among Afghans as the Panjwai Massacre.
On Nov. 5, 2009, U.S. Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan entered the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, in the Texas Army post Fort Hood, armed for a massacre he intended to commit. He stood in front of the young gathered troops and opened fire, killing 13 and injuring many more.
Hasan was prepared to kill more but was shot down by civilian police Sgt. Kimberly Munley before he could complete his plan. Hasan, who was paralyzed by the shooting, was disappointed that he survived, as he wanted to die a martyr for innocent civilians killed by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He failed to understand that the troops he massacred were victims of an illegal war too — just in a different way.
In June 2013, Bales confessed to the Panjwai Massacre to avoid the death penalty. Hasan was not afforded that option, nor did he ask for it. Last month, Bales was convicted of the massacre he committed, and sentenced to life in prison. Hasan was also convicted and sentenced to death.
The most startling aspect of these trials was the media and Congressional response to the equally heinous killers. Fox, CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC, along with The New York Times and Boston Globe, all lamented about what a wonderful man, husband and father Bales was before his bloodbath. He was described as a victim suffering under mental strain from four tours of duty — as if that was the murdered families’ fault. It was discernible that the media was even propagating sympathy and excuses for this mass killer.
No consideration was given to the pain and loss felt by the Afghan families. Blame was thrown everywhere except directly where it belonged — on Sgt. Bales. Even the Afghan family members that came to America to testify for trial were demonized and disregarded by the media. Their testimonies were heart-wrenching, yet not one media outlet covered it accurately.
The opposite was true with Hasan. Senator Joe Lieberman, who is ignorantly anti-Muslim, immediately took up the cause to reclassify the Fort Hood shooting as a terrorist act, calling Hasan a jihadist (a word sorely misrepresented by American Islamiphobes).
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, like-minded to Lieberman, reported that Hasan, an American citizen and Army service member, did not even deserve a trial. Blitzer chastised Hasan’s defense attorney, Col. John Galligan, for protecting the Sixth Amendment.
If one of these slaughters constitutes an act of terror, the other certainly does. And Bales committed the murder of all murders — the murder of innocent children. Both men indicated symptoms of mental illness, one not better or worse than the other.
Unfortunately, the American media declined to explain Hasan as they over-characterized Bales. Hasan joined the military to make a good life for his sick mother, whom he loved dearly. He spent most of his time home attending to her needs. They were law-abiding Muslims who by all accounts were great neighbors and friends in their community.
When it was discovered that the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were about natural resources, not weapons of mass destruction or helping anyone except corporate America, Hasan tried desperately to get out of the military. The more he had to stay in, the more anger he felt. When his mother died it sent him over the edge. The situation would have been the same regardless of what his name was or what religion he practiced.
There are no excuses for either man’s actions, that goes without saying. Twenty-nine innocent people lost their lives to the savage acts of these two men. But to give a human face to one killer and not the other paints a sobering layer of disparity on all American values.