Triangular the Truth Activity: U.S. Military Stg. Kills 16 Afghan villagers

Perla Jimenez

Geography 112, Section 2

Professor Davis

March 19th, 2012

Triangular the Truth Activity: U.S. Military Stg. Kills 16 Afghan villagers

The world has all of us connected through the news by the media whether it’s from the radio, internet, TV, newspaper, etc., we are all informed of what’s going on in the world through news.  When we hear or read headlines, it’s not always easy to believe whether the article you just read from yahoo news online is true or whether the news from a different source is believable with completely different views of the same exact story you just read.  I believe that it is important to have an open-mind and explore and research headlines that are on the news by going to different sources and not just believing or looking into one particular source and believing that is the truth because it was on the yahoo international headlines.
Just recently, headlines were taken over by the article regarding a U.S. military Sergeant killing 16 Afghan villagers, which included adults and children in the shooting.  I researched and gained different perspectives and views from three completely different sources that presented the story in their own way.   The first source I researched on was an article called “U.S. Identifies Army Sergeant in Killing of 16 in Afghanistan” from Afghan.com –Afghanistan News from the Afghanistan Press Agency, under the International News Outlet.  The second source I came across on was an article called “Afghan shooting suspect called to duty repeatedly” from the Reuters (US), under the US Online News Wires.  The third article I researched on was called “The “Lone Gunman” of Kandahar Province? "The Dehumanization of the Enemy" Engrained in the Behavior of US Soldiers...” from Centre for Research on Globalization, under the Special News Site.  
After reading each article about he same headline, they all three discussed that it was exactly sixteen people who were killed, nine of them being children and seven of them being adults.  The first article from the Afghan.com source was presented in a very mutual kind of dull tone.  There was no emotion nor prosecuting or blasting the Sergeant for what he did or name-calling, or any type of negative tone was presented. The source just simply stated the facts without any bias point of view or anything of that sort.   The second article from Reuters (US) source had a different tone and was very defending towards the Sergeant stating that Stg. Bales “had struggled to make financial ends meet and was disappointed at being sent back into a war zone for a fourth time rather than an easier posting in Germany or Hawaii”.  This source defended and tried to justify Sgt. Bales action more than any of the other three sources by constantly stating that he “went through a lot and witnessed the night before an solider losing his leg”.  This source discusses more about Sgt. Bales past and how he was in high school and college and how he was such a good guy and focused more on presenting him more on a good note than actually reporting on what happened in Afghanistan.  The third source from Centre for Research on Globalization had quite an opposing view from all three.  The source had a view that wanted to get the point across that the Sgt. Bales acted out alone.  They didn’t want to associate Sgt. Bales with the military or any type of US government because of his “guilty and horrible” action he did.   All three of the sources presented the articles that Sgt. Bales did shoot and kill sixteen people in Afghanistan; but all three presented it their own way, creating different perspectives for readers to gain.