"Sgt. Slaughter": The Shocking Tale of Robert Bales and the Kandahar Massacre
In the early morning hours of March 11, 2012, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales shot and killed 16 Afghan civilians and wounded several more. These tragic killings have come to be known as the Kandahar Massacre
Background
In the early morning hours of March 11, 2012, one of the ugliest incidents in a very ugly war occurred. Two shootings committed by United States Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales left sixteen civilians, including women and children, dead and six others wounded.
The shootings happened during a time when relations between Afghan civilians and U.S. troops and their allies were already strained. The killings created an international incident and were an embarrassment for the United States military and President Barack Obama.
Afghan investigators accused the United States of attempting to cover up the truth of the shootings. Several eyewitnesses recalled seeing multiple U.S. soldiers during the attacks, not just SSgt. Bales.
For a military that by then had long worn out its welcome, the killings were a disaster. Far from winning the “hearts and minds,” SSgt. Bales had merely succeeded in putting a bigger target on the backs of all U.S. personnel.
Escalating Hostilities
In the weeks and months leading up to the massacre, tensions rose between U.S. troops and the civilian population near Camp Belambai. Locals claimed that they had been abused and threatened by U.S. troops, while some American military personnel felt that civilians were harboring and assisting Taliban fighters in the area.
Panjwai District, located in Kandahar Province, was known to be a base of operations for the Taliban. In 2010, a U.S. military surge in the area led to a significant increase in airstrikes and bombings, raids on civilian homes, and an overall increase in U.S. military operations in the area.
These escalating hostilities only helped to increase the distrust and animosity between U.S. troops and civilians. Some Afghan homes and villages were destroyed by soldiers, while mass arrests and harassment were common.
At the same time, U.S. troops faced an increase in attacks from improvised explosive devices (IEDs), with some soldiers feeling that the rebels were being assisted by villagers.
Two high-profile incidents in the weeks leading up to the massacre further stoked the flames. A leaked video of U.S. Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters was followed a few weeks later when U.S. troops burned copies of the Quran at Bagram Air Base.
These incidents confirmed for many villagers that they were seen as the enemy, and in turn, that is how many of them viewed the U.S. military.