Afghan shooting spree: What did Sgt. Robert Bales's commander know?
By Anna Mulrine, Staff writer / March 28, 2012
To what extent do US military commanders bear responsibility for the bad behavior of the troops in their units?
That’s the question that Pentagon officials are grappling with in the wake of the shooting spree by an American soldier that left 17 dead, as well as the burning of Qurans by US troops earlier this month – which followed closely on the heels of revelations that US Marines, including a squad leader, had urinated on dead Taliban fighters.
“Each one of those was a result of a leadership failure in some form or another,” Gen. John Allen, the top US military commander in Afghanistan, acknowledged at a Pentagon briefing earlier this week.
How well do you know Afghanistan? A quiz.
To that end, he said he is speaking with chaplains, surgeons, and senior noncommissioned officers, “all of whom are taking the temperature, if you will” of what in military parlance is known as the “command climate” – or general state of morale and discipline – in various units.
Some wonder aloud whether the strain of repeated deployments, which could contribute to boredom or compassion fatigue or simple exhaustion – might be causing military leaders to miss or dismiss the actions of some of their soldiers. Others point out that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who stands accused of the shooting spree, was reportedly drinking alcohol in his quarters with other soldiers before he walked off the base and allegedly committed the murders.
