Blaming our troops
‘Friendly’ fire attacks have killed dozens of our heroes. The Pentagon’s response? Ordering sensitivity training about Islam
Paul Sperry
The New York Post
9/16/2012
Afghan security forces, our supposed allies, are slaughtering American troops. Thirty-three soldiers have been killed by “green on blue” attacks this year alone. The situation is so bad that the training of Afghan forces has been temporarily suspended.
How has the Pentagon responded?
By blaming our troops.
Top officials believe culturally offensive behavior is the motivation behind the killings, so it’s stepped up Islamic sensitivity training for our troops.
If you don’t want to be shot in the back by your Afghan training partners, the Pentagon advises, don’t offend their religious sensibilities. Don’t kick your feet up on a table, for instance, and never ask to see a picture of their wives and kids. “There’s a percentage [of attacks] which are cultural affronts,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said in a recent interview.
Dempsey echoes the concerns of Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, the Afghan National Army’s chief of staff, who earlier this month argued both sides need to do more to “teach” foreign troops Islamic traditions and values to reduce the chance of violent reactions to cultural slights…
Reuters
No matter how sensitive American soldiers are, Afghans continues to protest the United States. Getty Images
The article continues at The New York Post.
H/T Weasel Zippers
Related: Greg Buckley’s Agony
On August 10 this year Lance Cpl. Greg Buckley Jr. was murdered by an Afghan police officer “trainee” in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan. The 21 year old Buckley was working out in a gym when the Afghan officer walked in with an AK-47 and discharged the weapon into the unarmed Marine’s chest.
Earlier in the year, Buckley was told by a superior officer to apologize to the Afghan trainee after the pair had a dispute over the American presence in Afghanistan. The dispute occurred after the Afghan officer repeatedly pestered and harassed Buckley about the merits of the American mission while Buckley was on a night watch.
On Saturday last week, Buckley’s distraught father Greg Sr. finally unloaded over a month’s worth of painful but justified indignation concerning his son’s death into a letter addressed to “Barack and Michelle Obama.” …
Read the whole thing.
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