Villagers unsatisfied by life sentence for Bales
Source: AP-Excite
By GENE JOHNSON
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. (AP) - The U.S. soldier who massacred 16 Afghan civilians last year in one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars was sentenced Friday to life in prison with no chance of parole - the most severe sentence possible, but one that left surviving victims and relatives of the dead deeply unsatisfied.
"We wanted this murderer to be executed," said Hajji Mohammad Wazir, who lost 11 family members in the attack by Staff Sgt. Robert Bales. "We were brought all the way from Afghanistan to see if justice would be served. Not our way - justice was served the American way."
Bales, 40, pleaded guilty in June in a deal to avoid the death penalty for his March 11, 2012, raids near his remote outpost in Kandahar province, when he stalked through mud-walled compounds and shot 22 people - 17 of them women and children. Some screamed for mercy, while others didn't even have a chance to get out of bed.
The soldier showed no emotion as the sentence was announced at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Seattle.
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In this Aug. 23, 2011 photo from the Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales participates in an exercise at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. On Friday, Aug. 23, 2013, a military jury sentenced the U.S. soldier who massacred 16 Afghan civilians in 2012 to life in prison without a chance of parole. Bales pleaded guilty in June in a deal to avoid the death penalty for one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. (AP Photo/DVIDS, Spc. Ryan Hallock, File)
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I only wish there were something those of us who grieve for those Afghanis could do for them. 
... but I am opposed to the death penalty.
So, I can understand their grief, but can't support their wish for execution.
But, that doesn't prevent me from understanding and empathizing with their desire for more in terms of justice--unfortunately, there is no more to be offered.