The Washington Post published their interview with SSG Robert Bale’s lawyer, John Henry Browne, who is still clinging to the PTSD defense for his cliente who is accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians a few weeks ago. Browne talks about PTSD symptoms like he’s a doctor;
Browne, who met Bales face to face for the first time last week, said his client did, however, describe suffering symptoms strongly associated with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his combat experiences.
“There was a time when everyone in the room was crying when he described what he saw,” Browne said of the meeting that he, partner Emma Scanlan and a military defense lawyer had with Bales. Browne said the “horror of war” become a routine backdrop for Bales, who also reported “seeing bodies all over the place” and “putting body parts in bags” in Iraq.
Those aren’t symptoms, numbnuts, it’s stuff he did. And if he was so upset by the memories, why would Bales compound the “horror” with more horrors of his own making?
And, oh, yeah, remember when we were told that Bales lost part of his foot in an IED explosion? Well, that’s not the story now;
Bales also lost a portion of his foot as a result of unsanitary conditions in his Iraq base that led to a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, infection.
I guess that answers the questions about a Purple Heart.
Bales told his legal team that he remained a loyal soldier when he was shipped out unexpectedly on a fourth combat tour but was disturbed about the lack of a clear mission in Afghanistan, Browne said. As Bales and others in his unit sought to help the Afghan police secure an area, they fended off attacks from people who appeared to be civilians and Afghan allies.
“It was dispiriting,” Browne said. “He said he was really confused about why they were” in Afghanistan.
A clear mission? Since when does not having “a clear mission” drive someone to do what Bales is accused of doing? And the mission is pretty clear to everyone except Bales.
…the lawyer said his client told him that, on the night of the shootings, he returned to his base in southern Afghanistan with only a foggy memory of what had just happened. Bales, Browne said, remembered the smell of gunfire and of human bodies but not much more.
Yeah, that’s not PTSD, that’s a psychotic break. Browne had better get some more medical training before he starts diagnosing his clients in public.