WEBVTT - Once Upon a Time in Panjwai 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.400 Did you guys hear this story? 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:11.320 Bob that helped drowned back a streaming behind the striker 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:15.360 and sent a whole day trying to chop it up 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:16.880 so that it could never. 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:19.480 Be used again as cover for American soldiers. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.759 That's Carrie Bails, Bob's wife of about eighteen years now. 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.200 She's talking to two of our producers. 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:30.440 What came to my mind when hearing these details was 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:34.280 where was the support. I'm thinking to myself, this makes 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:37.440 me sad. But if it were somebody else, if it 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:39.720 were a different guy, Bob would have seen it and 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.279 have reached out and given support, you know what I mean, 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:44.479 and had been there for his brother like he promised 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:44.680 to do. 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:47.839 But what makes me really angry. 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:51.960 Is that it seems like nobody saw when Ball moved 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:52.760 it out. 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.000 In March of twenty twelve, Robert Bales's mental health was 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:59.360 deteriorating that back in their family's home in Seattle, Carrie 0:00:59.440 --> 0:00:59.960 was in the dark. 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:02.280 He couldn't tell me what they were doing, which had 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:03.680 kind of been a newer thing. 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:04.720 Like the way that he. 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:07.119 Said, I can't tell you what's going on. I hadn't 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.120 really paid attention to necessarily what he was going through. 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.800 I honestly think I didn't have a good understanding. 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:14.360 Of everything. 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:25.840 Previously on the war within. Robert Bales left his combat 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:31.080 out post alone and murdered sixteen Afghan civilians in cold blood. 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:33.559 Nobody joins the infantry to be the bad guy. 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:39.280 I think the situation in Afghanistan was so complicated and 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:44.920 Robert Bales is a depiction of the complexities of this conflict. 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:48.200 This is the heart of Taliban country. I was scared 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:48.520 of death. 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.120 Our rear vehicle was targeted and hit by an ID. 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:55.760 One guy ended up losing his leg below the knee. 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:58.200 I don't think people understand it's not a matter of 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:00.920 if you're going to die, it's about when. 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:03.040 If you're going to die. 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:05.919 Anyway, you have to go out and try to stop 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:06.520 that threat. 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:08.200 I'm Mike McGinnis. 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:19.239 This is the War within the Robert Bayles story. Before 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:23.480 deploying to Afghanistan in December twenty eleven, staff Sergeant Robert 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:27.840 Bales had already done three tours in Iraq. David Wesley 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:31.520 served alongside him for the first and second. During those 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.200 early years of the Iraq War, Bales and Wesley had 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:36.840 some of the most harrowing experiences of their lives. 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:39.600 So I joined the army in May fifth, two thousand 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.919 and one, and Bob came in. It was shortly after 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.520 I came in. We were in the same platoon, so 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:47.960 I met Bob and I just remember how vibrant this 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:48.560 guy was. 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:49.000 Right. 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:53.120 It was almost like the best politician in the world, 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:56.040 you know what I'm saying, Like an honest politician, Like 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.200 he's not afraid to share his mind. You know, he 0:02:58.360 --> 0:02:58.960 was that guy. 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:01.720 Many people want to listen to service straight from high 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:07.639 school or college. For some, the military is their first employer. Bails, 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.200 on the other hand, and listed when he was twenty seven. 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:12.960 Among the guys at his rank, he had a level 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:15.440 of maturity and discipline that stood out. 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:17.480 One of the fondest memories I have with me and 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:19.839 Bob was my girlfriend was coming over and this guy 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:22.800 was on a charge of barracks and as my girlfriend 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.560 was coming in, you know, he had said something kind 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.400 of messed up, kind of fucked up to her, and 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.519 I was told about it. So I was like, all right, man, 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.040 I go up to Bob was up there already, and 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:36.880 of course I wanted to fight. There's no if and 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:39.880 buts about that situation, like you said something inappropriate to 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:40.400 my girl. 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:43.400 I feel like you're a server. I'm a soldier, you 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:43.880 know better. 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:48.480 We got to fight, and Bob was there to stop us, 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:53.120 and I remember him saying, think about what you're going 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:57.080 to lose. This guy isn't going to make it in life. 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:01.560 You're going to give up everything for this guy. And 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.480 I just remember thinking to myself, like, man, I really 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:08.600 want to hit him though, And Bob was like, I 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:11.120 know you do, Man, that you can't, Bro, you can't. 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.560 And that was like really who he was as a person, 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:19.840 Like do the right thing, Do. 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.359 The right thing. It's a concept that a lot of 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:24.760 the people who enlisted after nine to eleven took to heart. 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:27.880 After all, they felt it was their patriotic duty to 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:31.080 fight for their country once it was time to deploy 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:33.720 it to in the least idealism clashed with the harsh 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.200 reality in front of them. 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:39.599 When we went over there, we thought fifty percent of 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.240 us weren't coming back. They had kind of a going 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.200 away parade. They've got this old general up there talking 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:48.640 and saying, you know, you guys are dragon slayers. You 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:50.680 know you're going to go over there and slay the dragon. 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:53.320 And you know many of you aren't coming home, and 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:55.400 you know that kind of thing, you know, so when 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.160 your mindset, you know, you're thinking this is going to 0:04:58.200 --> 0:04:58.919 be like Vietnam. 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:01.560 You know you're going to go. Your buddies are all 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:02.360 going to die. 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:06.680 Getting ready to go, you saw the absolute worst than people. 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.800 One guy threw himself down three separate flights and stairs. 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:14.360 So that he could avoid me. The for everyone was scared. 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:19.680 Everyone And I remember us being in the contonement area 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:25.800 and we're getting ready to go, and this eerie just 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:36.880 quiet comes over everything. No one wants to talk, nothing, 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:44.480 and it's time to go. And once we went across 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:49.159 that line, we knew it was a game time. I 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:53.120 just remember thinking, man, I hope I died quickly. Once 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:57.560 you're being shot at, I think either you fall away 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:02.280 or you embrace it. There were guys who were super 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:04.520 soldiers when the bullets weren't real. 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:05.720 You know guys that are fit. 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:09.440 He screams the loudest, he runs the fastest, he lifts 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:12.720 the most weight, and you put him in a combat situation, 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:15.440 you would be like, oh that guy, he's not gonna 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:15.840 make it. 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.479 Bob bails by most accounts. He was somebody that you 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:20.479 could trust out there. 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:22.279 Bob was always on ready. 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.040 He wanted to make sure everyone was protecting I don't 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:28.080 remember Bob freezing like some of the other guys did. 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.279 He quickly separated himself as one of those people that 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:33.800 wanted to fight. He wanted to go home. 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.960 As that first tour progressed, Bail started to get comfortable 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.080 in combat. It wasn't long before he developed the confidence 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:45.680 of a veteran. 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:48.320 I think you have to carry a little bit of 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:51.040 a swagger, a little bit of an edge to yourself 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:53.719 to be able to hey, man, I'm going to go 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.159 out here and I'm going to get blown up, and 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.440 I'm going to move against the enemy in an elevated position, 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.520 shooting me a machine gun, and I'm gonna be all right. 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:04.600 Not only am I gonna be all right, We're gonna 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:05.480 kill that bastard. 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.320 Bals proved himself on that tour. When it came time 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:13.160 to redeploy, he had been promoted to team leader. In 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:16.080 that role, not only was he responsible for his group 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:18.480 of guys, but when it came time for the squad 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:21.840 to put themselves in harm's way, he was leading the charge. 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.560 You know we're breaching the doors. Team leaders a first 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.560 guy in a door. Uh, team leaders appoint man and uh, 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:33.120 you know, depending upon where the threat is, he's the 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:34.320 guy that's most likely. 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:35.640 Going to engage the enemy first. 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:41.120 Baals is describing the process of entering a room which 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.600 might potentially house the enemy and then clearing or making 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:48.240 sure it's safe. It's a vital part of combat. When 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.120 that bails and his squad ended up tackling hundreds, not 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.680 thousands of times over the course three deployments in a Rock. 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:56.800 The idea is that you're going to go to your 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.720 point of domination and then once we clear, we continue 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:01.880 to move through the house. If we need to take 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:04.200 something down, then we'll have a team clear through us 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.680 and move to the following room, and uh, we just 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.880 do it over and over. It becomes so methodical. You've 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.120 done it so many times you don't even think about it. 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.600 It's just it's like water flowing in a picture. 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.160 By that second deployment, we were ready for anything. 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:23.000 Bob was the team leader by that point, you know, 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.200 he had his own boys, and we were monsters. 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.040 That looked like a freaking monster, you know, like and 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:33.120 that's kind of where I'm. 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.920 Little worry about now, you know, of like the monsters. 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:41.559 As a soldier, if you kill someone who's obviously an insurgent, 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:46.240 that should be an unequivocal success. But that doesn't always 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:50.280 mean you feel great about what happened. For example, take 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:52.920 Bails's story about his first legally sanctioned kill. 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:56.360 The first one that I know. 0:08:58.480 --> 0:08:58.960 Was mine. 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:04.560 We were a really terrible spot. We've been rounding pretty 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:09.520 hard for a while, and it was a kid, and 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:14.520 you know, it was one of those things you just 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:16.400 wish ahead and done. You know, He's one of those 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:18.600 things where the kid jumps off, he's shooting an AK. 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:21.720 You know, I'm kind of behind him cover. I couldn't 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.640 just let him shoot the AK out, you know. I 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.160 remember shoot him in the leg, you know, with the 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:29.520 yaw of the bullet to tumble, the bullet doesn't kill him, 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:33.680 and so you remember coming up and shooting him in the. 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:38.680 Chest and then finally in the face. It was what 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:39.360 it was, you know what. 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.040 I mean, an AK forty seven will kill you no 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:45.040 matter who's firing it. For many that's a threat that 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.560 has to be mitigated. David Wesley agrees, I think. 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.319 It was Eilenhower that said, war isn't about going and 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:53.520 dying for your country. War is about making the other 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:57.240 sorry bass d die for his right. So it's like 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:01.360 you kind of adopt that mindset. And if you stack 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:05.240 my life against the life of any person, and my 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:07.800 kids depend on me, my wife depends on me, I 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:09.520 choose to me every time. 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.319 It's February of twenty twelve. Staff Sergeant Robert Bales is 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:21.760 in the middle of his fourth tour. He's thirty eight 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.720 years old, with a wife and two young kids. He 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:28.280 has every intention of making it back home, but Panjhue, 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.120 Afghanistan is a kinetic region where the Taliban are active, 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.160 and as his tenure at BSP bellon By drags on, 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.440 Bailes thinks the threat levels are only getting higher. 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:42.400 So twenty fourth of February, we're conducting a patrol down 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:46.080 south to Najbian, which was one of the villages that 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:48.960 I went to the night I committed my crime, and 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:52.880 we came upon a command wired ied the commanded up 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:55.680 being one hundred and sixty pounds of explosives. You know, 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:58.440 it was a pretty big deal. That command wired led 0:10:58.520 --> 0:10:59.959 back to Haji Wisi. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:04.319 Years home, Bales Tell's documentarian Paul Plowski that he suspected 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.760 that Haji Muhammad Vizir was cooperating with the Taliban. 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.600 Upon detonating that ied, we get a bunch of signal 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.560 intelligence that is telling us that these insurgents are moving 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:17.679 to ambush us, so we take a defensive posture. Even 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.240 though we're in a defensive posture, we become engaged by 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.720 a machine gun fire from an elevated position. The SF 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.240 commander just had to give the word to light up 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:29.640 these machine gun guys, and he wouldn't do it. And 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:31.360 I think he was trying to carry out what his 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:35.240 mission was, more right, more in line with, you know, 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:38.920 hearts and minds instead of you know, breaking bones. But 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.280 at the time it made me feel like he didn't 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:43.160 know what he was doing. 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:48.439 It made me feel like he is soft on the Taliban. 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:57.120 Uncovering one hundred and sixty pounds of explosive material just 0:11:57.160 --> 0:11:59.400 a mile from your base can be unsettling. To put 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.400 a mild with Bales was still on high alert two 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:06.800 weeks later, as a nerving incidents kept piling up bombs 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.760 in a nearby house, an IED that took off a 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:14.440 soldier's leg a huge tree trunk in the VSP On 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.920 the night of Saturday, March tenth, at nine pm, Bales 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.880 goes up to the roof for guard duty, four hours 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.240 before the Kandaharm massacre begins. 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:25.960 I go to guard that night. 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.959 It just had become dark, and just shortly after we'd 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:32.800 taken guard, I see some flashing lights to the north 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:33.600 and to the south. 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:36.760 The guy that was with me was our platoon medic. 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:39.319 He didn't see the lights. 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:42.360 I thought at the time it was because he was 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:43.880 inexperienced and he was. 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:46.640 Not paying attention. 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.280 So I went over and there we had a high speed, 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.079 high powered scope on the roof that we could get 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:56.640 a good picture of it. And then I flipped around 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.960 to the south and the south location was Wazir's, which 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.120 was obviously where the one hundred and sixty pounds explosive was. 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:09.760 That did seem a little I'll admit I did roll 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:11.880 my eyes a little bit at that. 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.520 That's Brendan Vaughan, the writer of the GQ piece who 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.559 interviewed Bails extensively back in twenty fifteen. 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:18.640 Full caveat here. 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:21.960 I can't get inside Bob Bill's brain, but I think 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.440 that in the case of the lights that he was 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:28.840 seeing in the two villages around the base. Was he 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:32.720 just looking for reasons to kind of act? My strong 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:36.160 suspicion is that he was so keyed up and he 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.320 was so agitated by the events of the previous days 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:43.200 that he was just hyper aware of his surroundings in 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:48.080 a way that made him not particularly perceptive about what 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:51.600 these things actually meant. 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:59.960 At ten PM, Bales goes to hang out with two friends, 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:05.480 Jason McLoughlin and the man we're calling Soldier X. Together, 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.040 the three of them made up the infantry leadership on 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:12.320 the VSP. Bals catches up with them midway through watching 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:17.000 the Denzel Washington revenge thriller Man on Fire. Soldier X 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:18.480 recalls the evening. 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.720 I don't even recall, like intently watching the movie. I 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.200 think it was we're just more converse than through the 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:27.840 movie and whatnot. I know he plays a lot of 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.600 significance on it in a lot of the documentation, but 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:33.280 other than me remembering the movie, I don't know if 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:34.640 there's any significance to it. 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.960 As they watch Men on Fire, Bales, McLoughlin, and Soldier 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:43.240 X or drinking liquor. Alcohol is expressly forbidden for soldiers 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:47.240 on deployments, but that role isn't always enforced, and in 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:49.800 this case it's the squad leaders who. 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:50.240 Are breaking it. 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.760 Alohol. It was accessible in everybody, and not that everybody 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.320 was drinking every day or drinking heavily when they drink, 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:00.720 but it was definitely accessible. Were the arm put in 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.640 Afghanistan a lot of ways and a nightcap every once 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:05.960 in a while with your buddies is okay. 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.720 Did you feel that your peers had an issue with 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:12.320 drinking to get drunk? 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:17.120 No, definitely not. I consume alcohol on probably three or 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:22.040 four occasions multipoint over. There was never a drink to 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:24.800 get drunk thing. It was very similar to breaking some bread. 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:27.360 Did we talk about this or let's figure this out 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:28.560 and we'll break some bread to go to. 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:30.920 Do you remember how much everybody drank that night? 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:34.360 It was something so trivial and not that much that 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:36.280 we were wasted by the ends. 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:39.080 You know, this is always a thing like how much 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:39.400 was it? 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:39.640 You know? 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.680 It was a twenty one ounce Pepsi bottle full of 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:46.840 whiskey and three guys over two and a half hours. 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:51.280 You know, we worked out to like seven drinks per guy. 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.200 So all this is happening, you know, right before he 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:56.880 decides to leave, you know the installation, did Bales ever 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:01.160 mention that he would go and do something like he did? 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:05.680 My conversation was about the postal team, and he expressed 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:09.520 frustrations with the shooty and blown up. But it's more 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:11.960 of a manner of like breaking bread and the three 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.880 of us trying to hash out problems. But my right 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:18.040 question is never any inclination that he was going to 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:21.240 go out and want to cause a whole bunch of harm. 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.040 I do think I'll remember, how do you express anything 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:25.760 about him wanting to go out? 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:31.320 After the movie ends, the group calls it a night, 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:35.440 but Robert Bales apparently can't sleep. According to him, he 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.200 hasn't gotten a good night's rest in a while. 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.800 I didn't sleep Wednesday night. I really I try to 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:44.040 lay down Thursday. I really didn't lay down Thursday. I 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:46.800 think maybe I slept an hour on Friday. So from 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:50.520 Wednesday until after I had committed my crime, I hadn't 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:52.520 slept more than three hours. 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:53.760 That Saturday. 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:56.520 I try to go to bed, I go in, I 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.080 take some sleeping pills, can't go to sleep. 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.960 Bales has a bad feeling and he can't shake it. 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:07.080 So at around eleven thirty he wakes up Clayton blackshear 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:11.280 a Special Forces sergeant. Baal's squad was in Afghanistan to 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:14.240 support the SF so this was clearly his superior. 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.199 I go see the guy that is if responsible for 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:19.320 the VSP and I'm pretty much tell them. I'm like, 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:21.719 hey man, we need to go do something. You know, 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.919 this is some bogus stuff. And he said, basically, you know, 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:29.359 mind your own lane. It saysn't your business go to sleep. 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:31.160 You know, you need to take care of your guys 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:32.360 and worry about your lane. 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:33.399 This is our lane. 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.359 Screw You can't say screwed me, but that was the 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:37.640 way I took it. 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:41.760 Bales's adamant. He's seen the flashing lights from the nearby villages. 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:44.040 It's just not sitting right. 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:46.600 So I leave, I go back. 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.520 I sit in my chew for a while and I'm like, 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:53.520 you know, it's closing in. You know, they continues to 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:57.920 get worse and worse every day. You know, it's the 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:00.840 anticipation of that probably way worse the death itself. 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:03.280 That's terrible. 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.240 So when you kind of made that decision, was originally 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:11.480 to observe for what was it? What was kind of going? 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:12.560 What you did you think? 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:14.720 I hope to get out there, find guys that weren't 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:16.440 planning ID shoot them and come back. 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.240 Maybe I'm a little naive. I think I can make 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:20.800 a difference. 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:33.119 According to the military's internal investigation, at around one am Sunday, 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.560 March eleventh, staff started in. Bales climbed over the barbed 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:40.320 wire that separated the esp from its surroundings. As the 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:44.320 story goes, he wasn't wearing any body armor. All alone 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.520 in the pitch black. He walked north to the impoverished 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:53.440 village Valakozai. Here's bales chilling description what happened next. 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.960 When I got out there, I saw the compound. I 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:57.399 go in. 0:18:57.480 --> 0:18:59.720 I start clearing room to room like I would clear 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:01.320 like I've cleared thousands. 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:02.000 And thousands of times. 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:04.520 You know, a lot of women and kids are running 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.080 around going crazy. You know, it's not really what I'm 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:09.480 looking for. I go out, I come around the other 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:13.720 side and I pull this guy out, and even the 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:17.160 prosecution attest to you know, I'm asking for the tailid. 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:21.360 As Bles tells Paul, his intention was to get intel 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:25.639 on the Taliban. It wasn't long before that plan devolved. 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.080 I grabbed the first guy I see, and I'm kind 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:30.080 of working this guy over. 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:31.080 I'm kind of beating him. 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:32.840 It's a sport angry or. 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:35.480 I'm angry, but in my mind, I'm trying to find 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:38.680 the IDs because it's clear this compound has been used 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:43.880 in prior engagements to either house or support terrorist activity. 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:46.919 In my mind, at this point, this is undeniable. I 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:49.920 know that this is a bad place. All I had 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:53.280 was my helmet, my rifle, and my pistol. I only 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:56.679 had one magazine from my rifle and one from my pistol. 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:00.840 So I end up beating this dude a little bit, 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:08.359 and I'm just trying to find something and this dog 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:12.960 comes running up from my left and turn and I 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:17.160 shoot the dog. You don't keep a dog if you're starving. 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:20.320 You keep a dog as a warning system if you're 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:27.679 a taliban, right, So this little girl comes running up 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:37.600 and she's screaming, and I, uh, I turn and eye 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:40.760 just I shoot her. 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:43.000 It's an instinct. 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:51.920 I thought it was another dog at the time, and 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:58.199 when I recognized that it was a girl that you know, 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.399 I think, uh, you know, he killed me? 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:03.600 Man? 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:05.840 I mean, nobody wants to hurt a kid, you know, 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:13.960 immediately turn and uh I killed the guy and uh, 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:16.160 you know, to be honest with you, I don't really 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.880 know a lot about what happens next in that northern village. 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:25.560 It was not my intent to her with my children. Uh, 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:28.280 not my intent. 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:36.080 With the help of two journalists, Leila Amatzai and mere 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:40.760 wife Satal, Our Production secured interviews with six Afghan civilians 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:44.240 whose lives were forever changed by Robert Bales's actions that night. 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:49.600 They were the survivors. Their commentary has been translated from 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:54.439