It can easily be argued that Bolin saw that speech with the bandits as her trying to reform them. To the audience, the implication is obvious. But to those on the inside, who see the good she's doing for an entire nation of starving and scared people, it's not that simple.
They see her as a leader who will bring the Earth Kingdom back from the brink of destruction, not the powerhungry villain we all see her as.
The old man, just mentioned that he suspects some type of manipulation, and thats fore hear.
Surely , Surely, someone who has been with them, someone who has been in the command room to some degree has to have noticed an unusual amount of meetings and then bandit things happening around resistant territories
I'm not saying this dude has to be going through an extreme moral delemma, or has been a double agent or something. But if in a future episode it seems like he thought about for like two seconds, I will be fine.