Srgt. Bales was deployed 4 times, wasn't he? Add a tramatic brain injury and the general horrors of war and you have a tragedy waiting to happen. During the Vietnam war my friends went once and then were released from conscription and they were tramatized, many permanently. Multiple deployments and unrealistic military commitments are at the heart of this issue. Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum should promise to send their children and relatives into battle 2,3,4 times BEFORE they deliver their hawkish retoric. A war is fine for many until it is their child or someone who looks loke their child, going to fight.

The solution is very simple. Keep American troops off the ground in Muslim countries, except for rescue missions of our own or allied citizens. There is no valid reason for these long term homesteading operations in Muslim countries. None of them have worked out well for us. The reason why we have allowed ourselves to be sucked into these quagmires is our obstinate refusal to understand the true nature of Muslim/infidel relations. We just won't do it, we stubbornly refuse to do it. We won't even allow terms like Islam or Muslim to appear in offical documents. We don't understand sharia so we see no contradictions in sending our armed forces off to fight and die for sharia compliant governments. People like Sergeant Bales pay the price for our willful ignorance. Shame on us for stumbling through all these traumatic years without learning a GD thing about what we are dealing with.