Until just a few weeks ago, Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was known simply as a former high school football captain, an American patriot who joined the Army after 9/11, a husband, a son, and a father of two. Now, he’s a prisoner at a detention facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, accused of killing 16 civilians in Afghanistan in an incident that’s been called one of the worst war crimes of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. As new facts about Bales’ life emerge – including details about foot and head injuries and a mild traumatic brain injury he suffered – it appears that this could shape into a complicated legal case for the Army. Elisabeth Bumiller is a reporter for The New York Times.
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