An apology to President Karzai

[tinydancer]

We are still in Afghanistan because Obama wants to be there. He made it clear before he was elected that we would turn our attention from Iraq to Afghanistan, something you would have known if you didn't have your head up your ass.

its way worse than that. I was just ruminating upon the uproar over the koran (that wasn't by us) put in a toilet etc. and the shellacking bush took on that.

This incident has heavily damaged our ability to disengage and implement our exit strategy, but not a word on that in the media.

LOTS of media stories; situation WORSENING:
US advisers shot dead 'after Koran row' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Afghan protesters hurl grenades at US base *| ajc.com

You really seem to be a good person Peach. Forgive me when I go on a rant. It's a canuck thing.

Why is the President apologizing when the truth of the matter is that Imams actually advised them to burn the desecrated Korans?

I don't get this. I don't get it at all. The prisoners desecrated their Korans. Plain and simple no argument whatsoever. As far as I can dig up the Imams locally said that the base had to burn the desecrated Korans.

BTW death in Afghanistan over this. You write in a Koran you are toast.

Is Obama not getting truth from his advisers?

 

[waltky]

Granny says dis is how ya s'posed to do it...

How Religions Handle Disposal of Religious Texts
February 25, 2012 - Guidelines on how religious books should be handled once they are worn out vary by religion and sect

A perfect Quran should not be destroyed. Jews may bury Torah scrolls in graves or a special storage room. Roman Catholics can bury Bibles, while Evangelical Protestants do not have specific guidelines. Scriptural religions - those based on texts believed to be the word of God - have different rules for when and how those texts can be discarded. But what they have in common is a reverence shown for such texts, with practices such as kissing it or never placing another book on top of it. In Afghanistan, deadly violence broke out after U.S. military servicemen disposed of several copies of the Quran by burning them.

Rizwan Jaka of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society near Washington says he accepts U.S. explanations that the burning was inadvertent. He notes that the Quran itself teaches Muslims to "repel bad with good." Sarah Thomson, spokeswoman for the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA.NET - main page), says the proper way of responding to the desecration of Qurans is by donating new ones or teaching about respect for the book. She says the only reason a Quran may be destroyed is if there is an error like a misspelling, a missing page or an inaccurate translation if it's in a language other than Arabic. "You wouldn't destroy them because they are old," she says.

In those cases, Thomson says the consensus among Muslim religious scholars is that the proper methods for disposal are wrapping it in clean cloth and burying it, or immersion in water. However, some scholars say if those methods are not possible, a Quran may be burned if done in a respectful way, preferably at a mosque.

Many Jewish cemeteries have special graves for Torah scrolls and other documents because anything that contains God's name should be buried when it is no longer usable. It can also be placed in a dedicated room known as a geniza. In 1896, a geniza was found in Cairo, Egypt, with hundreds of thousands of Jewish texts dating back to before the ninth century including marriage contracts and legal and financial documents. Rabbi Paul Drazen of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism says that several years ago the movement's rabbis ruled that recycling is also an appropriate means of disposal. Drazen says the burning of Torahs has an emotional component in Judaism. "Throughout generations Jewish texts were burned as part of the torture of individuals and it also preceded the Holocaust," he says.

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[Gadawg73]

The bigger issue is, why are we still in Afghanistan.

We've been there for 11 years now.

We went in to get Al Qaeda. But Al Qaeda has decamped Afghanistan (where they never liked it to start with) for Yemen, Libya and Iraq. The ones we didn't kill, that is. Bin Laden is dead. So are most of the other key leaders. Dead or at Gitmo.

We say we are there to promote "Democracy" but that became hollow when Karzai stole the 2009 election.

We need to pull up stakes, immediately, and let the Taliban and Karzai work it out.

Because there has never been a clock in this war in Afghanistan or in Iraq.
A game plan has a clock, a timetable, to set goal marks to achieve.
Just like Viet Nam there has never been any of that in these wars.
Just like in Nam this "win the hearts and souls of the citizens and natives" argument is parroted.
And it is the worst kind of bull shit.
We need to come home tomorrow. Most of those folk over there are ignorant savages that kill each other.
Fuck them.

 

[Trajan]

We are still in Afghanistan because Obama wants to be there. He made it clear before he was elected that we would turn our attention from Iraq to Afghanistan, something you would have known if you didn't have your head up your ass.

its way worse than that. I was just ruminating upon the uproar over the koran (that wasn't by us) put in a toilet etc. and the shellacking bush took on that.

This incident has heavily damaged our ability to disengage and implement our exit strategy, but not a word on that in the media.

LOTS of media stories; situation WORSENING:
US advisers shot dead 'after Koran row' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Afghan protesters hurl grenades at US base *| ajc.com

thats not what I was referring to.

 

[Contumacious]

The bigger issue is, why are we still in Afghanistan.

"All the western claims about fighting "terrorism" or abused women in hijabs could not fully conceal that Afghanistan was also a war being waged for strategic geography, minerals, pipeline routes, and the desire to bar China from the region".

 

[syrenn]

My Apology to President Karzai on Behalf of Americans - YouTube

Im sorry our president doesn't have half the spine she has.

 

[Peach]

its way worse than that. I was just ruminating upon the uproar over the koran (that wasn't by us) put in a toilet etc. and the shellacking bush took on that.

This incident has heavily damaged our ability to disengage and implement our exit strategy, but not a word on that in the media.

LOTS of media stories; situation WORSENING:
US advisers shot dead 'after Koran row' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Afghan protesters hurl grenades at US base *| ajc.com

You really seem to be a good person Peach. Forgive me when I go on a rant. It's a canuck thing.

Why is the President apologizing when the truth of the matter is that Imams actually advised them to burn the desecrated Korans?

I don't get this. I don't get it at all. The prisoners desecrated their Korans. Plain and simple no argument whatsoever. As far as I can dig up the Imams locally said that the base had to burn the desecrated Korans.

BTW death in Afghanistan over this. You write in a Koran you are toast.

Is Obama not getting truth from his advisers?

No, the truth is we turned our attention to IRAQ before clearing the country of radicals, and ensuring an honest, stable government. Some Taliban remained, regained some power, thus here we are 10+ YEARS later. Had we not CHOSEN to invade Iraq, no Americans would be dying in Afghanistan.

 

[Peach]

My Apology to President Karzai on Behalf of Americans - YouTube

Im sorry our president doesn't have half the spine she has.

I'm sorry Bush refused to focus on terror rather than personal grievances. But he did, and American troops have paid horribly for his neglect and ego driven desire to "TAKE HIM OUT".

 

[Contumacious]

LOTS of media stories; situation WORSENING:
US advisers shot dead 'after Koran row' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Afghan protesters hurl grenades at US base *| ajc.com

You really seem to be a good person Peach. Forgive me when I go on a rant. It's a canuck thing.

Why is the President apologizing when the truth of the matter is that Imams actually advised them to burn the desecrated Korans?

I don't get this. I don't get it at all. The prisoners desecrated their Korans. Plain and simple no argument whatsoever. As far as I can dig up the Imams locally said that the base had to burn the desecrated Korans.

BTW death in Afghanistan over this. You write in a Koran you are toast.

Is Obama not getting truth from his advisers?

No, the truth is we turned our attention to IRAQ before clearing the country of radicals, and ensuring an honest, stable government.

Yes, indeed.

We were supposed to clear all the marxist and warmongers radicals from Washington, DC thereby ensuring an honest, stable government

 

[Gadawg73]

You really seem to be a good person Peach. Forgive me when I go on a rant. It's a canuck thing.

Why is the President apologizing when the truth of the matter is that Imams actually advised them to burn the desecrated Korans?

I don't get this. I don't get it at all. The prisoners desecrated their Korans. Plain and simple no argument whatsoever. As far as I can dig up the Imams locally said that the base had to burn the desecrated Korans.

BTW death in Afghanistan over this. You write in a Koran you are toast.

Is Obama not getting truth from his advisers?

No, the truth is we turned our attention to IRAQ before clearing the country of radicals, and ensuring an honest, stable government.

Yes, indeed.

We were supposed to clear all the marxist and warmongers radicals from Washington, DC thereby ensuring an honest, stable government

"an honest, stable government"
In Afghainstan?

 

[waltky]

Shooting posing problems here for Obama...

Obama faces new pressures on Afghanistan
Mar 12, 2012 - Afghanistan already ranked high on President Obama's priority list.

Now the horrific shooting deaths of 16 Afghanistan civilians by a U.S. soldier will shadow Obama's plans to gradually wind down U.S. involvement over the next two years -- and could well increase the pressure to speed things up. As administration officials brace for a backlash in Afghanistan -- the Taliban has vowed revenge against "sick-minded American savages" -- Obama is planning to review plans to withdraw U.S. and allied forces while turning over security to the Afghanistan government in 2014. The pace of the Afghanistan withdrawal is one of the topics of this week's visit to Washington by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Afghanistan also tops the agenda at the G-8 and NATO summits that Obama hosts in Chicago. Obama -- who less than a month ago apologized to Afghanistan for the burning of Qurans at a U.S. military base -- said in a Sunday statement that "I am deeply saddened by the reported killing and wounding of Afghan civilians." "This incident is tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan," the president said. Some Obama officials had hoped to combine plans for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces with a step-by-step handover of security responsibilities to the Afghanistan government.

Some officials also had high hopes for peace talks involving the Taliban, but those may be destroyed by Sunday's killings. Officials will also be watching to see if domestic pressure increases in the United States for a quicker pullout after the shootings. Many of Obama's fellow Democrats have long been skeptical of the Afghanistan commitment; whether they become more vocal after yesterday's events remains to be seen. The Afghanistan debate is also subject to another ongoing event: The presidential election. Right now, it's hard to say how the murders might affect the White House race.

Some Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have criticized Obama for setting a withdrawal date in the first place. Romney has also said Obama should heed the advice of his generals, and it will be interesting to see how the Pentagon to yesterday's violence. GOP candidate Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, said on CBS' Face The Nation: "I think we need to reconsider the whole region. We need to understand that our being in the middle of countries like Afghanistan is probably counterproductive. We're not prepared to be ruthless enough to force them to change. And yet we are clearly an alien presence."

Source

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Fears Karzai will take Afghanistan back to the stone age
Friday 9th March, 2012 - Human rights groups are up in arms about Afghan President Karzai's very public support this week for a crackdown on womens' rights in his country.

The move by the Afghanistan government, which curiously coincided with International Women's Day, has dismayed many who have applauded the advancement of women in Afghanistan in the years since the U.S.-led invasion of 2001 which toppled the Taliban. The head of the Save the Children Fund Jasmine Whitbread (pictured) says she is "gravely concerned" over the muted response about the Karzai government's stance. The edict by the Ulema Council requires women to wear traditional Islamic hijab dress and not take any prominent place in society. Women should not travel without a male chaperone, nor should they mix with men in places of education, the workplace, or in public. Women should be treated as secondary to men, the edict says.

The hard-won gains of recent years may well be lost as these new "values" are brought in. "A decade ago not a single formal girls' school in Afghanistan was functioning; now over 2.5 million girls are in school," Whitbread says. "Opening the doors to the education and vocational sectors has proliferated into new active roles for women in the country, including training sessions for midwives; training in nutritional practices; the promotion of teaching, sewing, knitting, and embroidery; and support for small-scale women's enterprises such as honey production, yoghurt processing, and the marketing of fruits, jam, saffron, and other quality products."

"As I saw for myself recently, thanks to these educational and vocational advances, Afghanistan today is in many ways a more progressive, pluralistic society than it has been for decades," said the Save the Children chief. "Women now represent a quarter of both houses of parliament and, although much work remains to be done, women's civil society groups have grown in influence and credibility, which has had positive resonance throughout Afghanistan." "There are now around 3,000 trained midwives and 10,000 women who serve as community health workers in the country. Thanks to these women, more Afghan families are receiving basic health care services, such as vital vaccines which can prevent children in their vulnerable early years from catching life threatening illnesses like pneumonia. Fewer women are giving birth alone, more children are sleeping under malaria nets, and the warning signs for tuberculosis and acute diarrhoea are being picked up faster."

As the departure of international forces in 2014 approaches, many Afghan women look to the future with fear. "They worry that the troop pullout signals the end of interest in Afghanistan, and with it the international commitment to push the Afghan government to promote and protect women's rights," says Heather Barr, the head of Afghanistan researh for Human Rights Watch. "Also likely to decrease is the foreign aid that pays for schools and clinics that have changed many lives. Afghan women fear being abandoned again by the rest of the world, as they were during the Taliban era," says Barr. The prospect of a truce between the Afghan government and the Taliban which is become increasingly likely will almost certainly lead to an erosion of womens' rights.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Despite anti-American sentiment over shooting, Obama followin' the withdrawal plan...

US Officials: Afghan Killings May Fuel More Anti-American Sentiment
March 12, 2012 - Afghan and NATO authorities are continuing to investigate the actions of a U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians and then setting many of the bodies on fire on Sunday. While no major protests over the incident occurred on Monday, authorities worry it could further fuel public opposition to foreign troops.

Villagers who witnessed the attack in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province say they saw a U.S. soldier shooting the victims, many of whom where women and children, as they slept. Some of the bodies were also partially burned indicating that the perpetrator set them on fire. One man who lost his family explained to reporters what happened. He says as he started to fire a dog ran toward him and he shot the dog, then he entered the house, rounded all family members in one room and martyred all of them.

President Karzai called the attack, “an assassination, an intentional killing of innocent civilians and cannot be forgiven.” President Barack Obama called the attack "tragic and shocking" and not representative of "the exceptional character of the U.S. military. Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, says the shootings in Kandahar are being investigated as a murder, and not part of any military operation. “Those who suffered as innocent citizens of Kandahar are not civilian casualties from military activity, they are victims,” he stated.

U.S. officials identified an army staff sergeant as the shooter and said he acted alone. But some villagers and Afghan officials are skeptical that one soldier could have amassed such a death toll on his own, and others may haven been involved. Afghan President Hamid Karzai also raised doubts in a statement in which he at first confirmed that a single U.S. gunman was responsible but later referred to “American forces” entering houses. There is great concern that the incident could fuel public outrage similar to last month’s inadvertent burning of Qurans at an American military base. That led to a week of violent protests, as well as attacks against U.S. forces and the killing of two American officers in the interior ministry. Afghans have spread rumors that Sunday’s attacks were retribution for those deaths.

General Jacobson said there is no evidence that the Kandahar attack was linked to any past attacks against U.S. soldiers, but did not disclose the soldier’s possible motive. He urged the public to allow investigators to do their work and not engage in speculation. “Beliefs and rumors are always a bad guidance. And we have seen and heard enough beliefs and rumors yesterday, as the story becomes clearer and clearer to us at this moment and has to become clearer in coming days,” Jacobson said.

The Taliban released a statement that vowed revenge for the killings. The shooting comes as U.S. and Afghan authorities negotiate the transfer of security responsibilities to Afghan forces. The two sides already signed off on a deal to transfer full control of an American detention facility to Afghanistan in six months, and now hope to develop a broader strategic partnership agreement before the May meeting of NATO in Chicago. That agreement is expected to define the U.S role in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of most of its 98,000 combat soldiers in 2014.

Source

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US: No Change in Afghan Strategy After Shooting Spree
March 12, 2012 - As the U.S. military investigates the shooting deaths of 16 Afghan civilians allegedly by a U.S. soldier, the White House is emphasizing the importance of pressing ahead with President Barack Obama's overall strategy and timetable in Afghanistan.

The house-to-house shooting spree, allegedly by a U.S. Army staff sergeant, was the latest blow to an already fragile U.S.-Afghanistan relationship. In his telephone call on Sunday to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President Obama called the incident tragic and shocking, adding that it did not represent the "exceptional character" of the U.S. military or the "respect that the U.S. has for the people of Afghanistan." The incident came only a few weeks after apparently accidental burning of Qurans at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan. The deadly demonstrations that followed resulted in the shooting deaths of six U.S. soldiers by Afghan counterparts.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Monday referred to the U.S. military's investigation. After the Quran burning incident last month, President Obama apologized to Afghanistan's people. And Carney said America's overall strategy remains on track. "I am sure there will be discussions ongoing between U.S. military leaders as well as civilian leaders in Afghanistan and the Afghan government in the wake of this incident. But our strategic objectives have not changed and they will not change," Carney said. Carney said the situation in Afghanistan is difficult, with significant challenges for U.S. troops. But, he said, U.S. and NATO forces are there to enhance American security interests by disrupting, dismantling and ultimately defeating al-Qaida.

The United States and its NATO partners have set 2014 as the target date for ending their combat mission in Afghanistan, while seeking to turn over security responsibilities to Afghan government forces more quickly before then. Asked whether President Obama is concerned that the latest incident places Americans in Afghanistan in jeopardy, Carney said Mr. Obama is always very concerned about the welfare and well-being of U.S. civilians and members of the military. Pentagon spokesman George Little called the shooting incident "deplorable," but said such incidents are isolated. He said the United States will pursue what he called "accountability actions" to the fullest extent, but stressed continuity in the Afghan war effort.

"The reality is that our fundamental strategy is not changing. There has been a series of troubling incidents recently, but no one should think that we are steering away from our partnership with the Afghan people, from our partnership with the Afghan national security forces, and from our commitment to prosecute the war effort," Little said. The shooting rampage came as a Washington Post-ABC News public opinion survey found that 55 percent of Americans say they believe most Afghans oppose U.S. objectives there, with 54 percent favoring a U.S. withdrawal, even before Afghan forces are self-sufficient. Under an order President Obama gave last year, about 33,000 U.S. troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of this year.

Source

 

[Clementine]

Did anyone apologize for this? Their Last Church Destroyed, Afghan Christians Fear the Worst

They did worse than burn bibles, they destroyed all of the Christians churches. Yet, no outrage from the left. How can this be?

The Koran is no more special than any other religious book. The prisoners used it as a means of getting messages to each other and it was reasonable to destroy them. What is the reason for so many Muslims destroying all things Christian, other than pure hatred of non-Muslim people? Yet, Obama continues to sing the virtues of Islam and refuses to condemn any of them for all the terrorist attacks, the support shown publicly for the terrorists, including a line of clothing celebrating 9/11 and a deafening silence when it comes to condemning those who kill innocents. Obama showed more emotion over the Koran burnings than he did over 9/11. I hope I'm wrong on the last one. Anyone have a link showing video or an article right after 9/11 where Obama is appearing to be deeply saddened over the event? Could care less what was said years later when he was playing politics. If any person did not condemn the radicals right away, I don't trust them.

 

[waltky]

Obama gonna take care of it...

Afghans seek new pact to try U.S. soldier in killings
13 Mar.`12 – Some Afghans are demanding its government forge a new pact that allows U.S. soldiers accused of crimes to be tried by Afghan courts as the U.S. military on Tuesday said it found probable cause against a soldier accused of murdering 16 civilians.

Col. Gary Kolb, a spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition in Kabul, said that a 48-hour probable cause assessment was completed and that the servicemember continued to be confined. President Obama said the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan will not change in light of the killings. "The United States takes this as seriously as if it was our own citizens and our own children who were murdered," Obama said in Washington.

The soldier, who has not been named, could face the death penalty if found guilty in a court-martial of gunning down the civilians, including nine children, in two villages of Kandahar province before dawn Sunday. There have been few demonstrations against the United States over the killings, but hundreds of students protested on Tuesday in Jalalabad, a city in eastern Afghanistan where extremists have a greater presence. The protests were peaceful.

At Nangarhar University in eastern Afghanistan, demonstrators led chants of, "Do not sign the strategic agreement with America." "The reason we are protesting is because of the killing of innocent children and other civilians by this tyrant U.S. soldier," said Sardar Wali, a university student. "We want the United Nations and the Afghan government to publicly try this guy."

Afghan and U.S. officials have been in negotiations over such an agreement for months. Among the issues being discussed is whether the United States will maintain bases in the country to ensure stability beyond a withdrawal of U.S. combat forces. There are about 90,000 U.S. servicemembers in Afghanistan, and President Obama wants them to depart by the end of 2014 if conditions are secure.

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Obama Promises Thorough Inquiry Into Afghan Attack
March 13, 2012 WASHINGTON — President Obama pledged on Tuesday that a thorough investigation would be conducted into the bloody rampage by an American soldier in Afghanistan.

“The United States takes this as seriously as if this was our own citizens and our own children who were murdered,” Mr. Obama said, in his first public remarks since the shooting took place on Sunday. He said he was “heartbroken by the loss of innocent life,” calling it outrageous and unacceptable. “It’s not who we are as a country, and it does not represent our military,” he added. The president said the Pentagon would follow the facts “wherever they lead us,” though he offered no new details about the identity of the soldier or the circumstances of the attack. Mr. Obama said he met on Monday with the American military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John R. Allen, and with the ambassador, Ryan Crocker.

Mr. Obama insisted that the furor stirred up by the rampage would not alter the policy or timetable of the United States as it winds down the war in Afghanistan. The administration, he said, was on track to withdraw 23,000 troops from the country by the end of the summer. That would remove the troops added for the “surge” in 2010, and lower the total number of American troops in Afghanistan to 68,000. “There’s no question that we face a difficult challenge in Afghanistan,” Mr. Obama said on Tuesday, speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House. “But I’m confident we can continue the work of meeting our objectives, protecting our country, and responsibly bringing this war to a close.”

Later in the day, the president was scheduled to welcome Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain to the White House, for a visit that is likely to be dominated by questions about Afghanistan, where Britain is a crucial member of the coalition. Mr. Cameron, according to a senior British official, was expected to express wariness about allowing the rampage to change the coalition’s timetable in Afghanistan, which calls for NATO forces to turn over responsibility for security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014. Britain recently lost six soldiers after an explosion hit their armored vehicles in southwestern Afghanistan.

Source

 

[snakedoc]

The question was asked why are we still in Afghanistan I will use a Afghan quote I found in the book Apache about the Apache helicopter groups fighting there. They have the watches but we have the time the Taliban knows they can wait and sooner or later we will leave and they can make there comeback and if they do then Al-Queda can come back and set up camp again Bin Laden may be dead but his number two man is not and a lot of top leaders may be dead or captured but others will take there place.I understand the desire to put Afghanistan in the rear view mirror and not look back but don't forget what happened the last time we did that.

 

[waltky]

Suspect in Afghan massacre flown out of country...

Suspect in Afghan massacre flown to Kuwait
March 14, 2012 - A U.S. military official says the American soldier accused of killings 16 Afghan civilians on a shooting spree has been flown out of Afghanistan to Kuwait, according to a U.S. official.

The official said Wednesday that the soldier has been flown to a "pretrial confinement facility." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not yet been publicly announced. CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that Defense Department spokesman Capt. John Kirby said the suspect was moved because "we do not have an appropriate detention facility in Afghanistan" and that the move was made on the legal recommendation of the command's lawyer. A second official told Martin that it was done with the knowledge and approval of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Obama promises to use "full force of the law" in response to Afghan killings
Afghan outrage builds from shooting massacre The suspect's removal Wednesday came hours after surveillance video was released showing him walking up to his base, laying down his weapon and raising his arms in surrender, according to an Afghan official who viewed the footage. The official said Wednesday there were also two to three hours of video footage covering the time of the attack that Afghan investigators are trying to get from the U.S. military. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

U.S. authorities showed their Afghan counterparts the video of the surrender to prove that only one perpetrator was involved in Sunday's shootings, the official said. The shootings, which killed nine children among the 16 dead, has further strained already shaky relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan. Some Afghan officials and residents in the villages that were attacked have insisted there was more than one shooter. If this disagreement persists, it could deepen the distrust even more.

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Afghanistan massacre casts pall over village operations
14 Mar.`12 - The village where a U.S. sergeant is accused of a massacre probably had a very close, daily relationship with the Green Berets who protected the village and taught people there how to defend themselves from the Taliban, military experts say.

Although the accused soldier was not part of the Special Forces based near the rural village in Panjwai district, he was a member of the "conventional troops" who supported the Special Forces in a relatively new concept in the decade-long war known as "village stabilization operations," or VSO. Balandi, in the southern province of Kandahar, was one of about 60 villages designated a VSO, where Special Forces troops are trying to prepare Afghans to maintain their own security once NATO troops depart for good.

It's a precarious and at times stressful balancing act for the Special Forces, who must be both warriors and mentors while living among a population in which the Taliban and its sympathizers lurk, says Marine Col. Willard Buhl, an active-duty officer. "It's a 24/7 life-danger environment you are in," says Buhl, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who served alongside Special Forces units. "The Special Forces are particularly vulnerable because they aren't very large and embed with the local population. "You have to be always on your guard, but you have to demonstrate that you trust your host with you life."

VSOs differ from conventional military bases and smaller "combat outposts" where the majority of the fighting with militant groups such as the Taliban takes place. At the VSOs, NATO troops have cleared the Taliban from control and are helping the villagers keep the Taliban out for good and prevent them from returning to recruit men as fighters or tax farmers to fund their insurgency. In a VSO, highly skilled special operations troops situate themselves next to and sometimes inside rural villages that have been cleared of the Taliban and work with the local leaders daily to establish police and intelligence operations. While the popular perception of the Special Forces is that of a lethal squad of Taliban hunters, much of what they do in the VSO is "non-kinetic," that is, non-lethal operations.

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[waltky]

Afghans have their share of nutjobs too...

Afghan Soldier Killed a U.S. Marine Last Month, But Pentagon Didn’t Reveal the Treachery
March 16, 2012 WASHINGTON (AP) - An Afghan soldier shot to death a 22-year-old Marine at an outpost in southwestern Afghanistan last month in a previously undisclosed case of apparent Afghan treachery that marked at least the seventh killing of an American military member by his supposed ally in the past six weeks, Marine officials said.

Lance Cpl. Edward J. Dycus of Greenville, Miss., was shot in the back of the head on Feb. 1 while standing guard at an Afghan-U.S. base in the Marja district of Helmand province. The exact circumstances have not been disclosed, but the Dycus family has been notified that he was killed by an Afghan soldier. Marine officials discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because it is still under investigation. When the Pentagon announced Dycus' death the day after the shooting, it said he died "while conducting combat operations" in Helmand. It made no mention of treachery, which has become a growing problem for U.S. and allied forces as they work closely with Afghan forces to wind down the war.

The Associated Press inquired about the Dycus case after Maj. Gen. John Toolan, the top Marine commander in Afghanistan at the time, said in an AP interview March 7 that the Afghan government has been embarrassed by recent cases of Afghan soldiers turning their guns on their supposed partners. "I had one just a month ago where a lance corporal was killed, shot in the back of the head, and the Afghan minister of defense was here the next day" to discuss custody of the shooter, Toolan said, speaking from his Regional Command-Southwest headquarters at Camp Leatherneck. After a negotiation aimed at ensuring the Afghan suspect is prosecuted, the Americans turned him over to Afghan government custody, another official said.

Toolan did not further identify the victim. He mentioned the case while explaining the importance of stopping Afghan treachery as U.S. forces step back from a direct combat role in Helmand and other areas of Afghanistan to a new mission of advising and assisting Afghan soldiers and police. That role, which is in full swing in Helmand, puts U.S. and other NATO troops in closer contact with Afghans at a time when tensions between the two sides have been heightened by an American soldier's alleged killing Sunday of 16 Afghan civilians.

NATO has approved a series of measures to help reduce the risks of attacks. They include embedding counterintelligence officers in the Afghan army and its training schools to detect people behaving suspiciously, increasing the number of Afghan intelligence officers, and making sure Afghan troops are paid regularly and get regular leave. Random drug testing will also be implemented. "The Marines and soldiers that are doing the advising work out here understand that if they can't live side by side and operate day in and day out with the Afghans, then they are not going to be able to achieve what they need to achieve as far as relationship building," Toolan said.

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Money, career woes plagued Afghan killings suspect
March 17, 2012 — Bypassed for a promotion and struggling to pay for his house, Robert Bales was eyeing a way out of his job at a Washington state military base months before he allegedly gunned down 16 civilians in an Afghan war zone, records and interviews showed as a deeper picture emerged Saturday of the Army sergeant's financial troubles and brushes with the law.

While Bales, 38, sat in an isolated cell at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.'s military prison Saturday, classmates and neighbors from suburban Cincinnati, Ohio, remembered him as a "happy-go-lucky" high school football player who took care of a special needs child and watched out for troublemakers in the neighborhood. But court records and interviews show that the 10-year veteran — with a string of commendations for good conduct after four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan — had joined the Army after a Florida investment job went sour, had a Seattle-area home condemned, struggled to make payments on another and failed to get a promotion or a transfer a year ago.

His legal troubles included charges that he assaulted a girlfriend and, in a hit-and run accident, ran bleeding in military clothes into the woods, court records show. He told police he fell asleep at the wheel and paid a fine to get the charges dismissed, the records show. Military officials say that after drinking on a southern Afghanistan base, Bales crept away on March 11 to two slumbering villages overnight, shooting his victims and setting many of them on fire. Nine of the 16 killed were children and 11 belonged to one family. "This is some crazy stuff if it's true," Steve Berling, a high school classmate, said of the revelations about the father of two known as "Bobby" in his hometown of Norwood, Ohio.

Bales hasn't been charged yet in the shootings, which have endangered complicated relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan and threatened to upend U.S. policy over the decade-old war. His former platoon leader said Saturday Bales was a model soldier inspired by 9/11 to serve who saved lives in firefights on his second of three Iraq missions. "He's one of the best guys I ever worked with," said Army Capt. Chris Alexander, who led Bales on a 15-month deployment in Iraq. "He is not some psychopath. He's an outstanding soldier who has given a lot for this country."

But pressing family troubles were hinted at by his wife, Kari, on multiple blogs posted with names like The Bales Family Adventures and BabyBales. A year ago, she wrote that Bales was hoping for a promotion or a transfer after nine years stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Tacoma, Wash. "We are hoping to have as much control as possible" over the future, Kari Bales wrote last March 25. "Who knows where we will end up. I just hope that we are able to rent our house so that we can keep it. I think we are both still in shock."

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[The Gadfly]

The bigger issue is, why are we still in Afghanistan.

We've been there for 11 years now.

We went in to get Al Qaeda. But Al Qaeda has decamped Afghanistan (where they never liked it to start with) for Yemen, Libya and Iraq. The ones we didn't kill, that is. Bin Laden is dead. So are most of the other key leaders. Dead or at Gitmo.

We say we are there to promote "Democracy" but that became hollow when Karzai stole the 2009 election.

We need to pull up stakes, immediately, and let the Taliban and Karzai work it out.

I think we should do just that, but while we are leaving, do you suppose we could (a) blow up the water and electrical grid, along with any other useful infrastructure in the place, (b) destroy any bases and/or buildings of military or other value (c) poison every damn poppy field and soak the ground with enough herbicide to make sure NOTHING grows there for at least twenty years, (d) shoot anything that moves, and burn anything that doesn't, and (d) last, but certainly not least, inform Karzai and the Taliban that whatever is left of them can then go back to murdering and betraying each other, like they have been accustomed to doing for the last thousand years, with no more money, no more American aid, and no more interference from us....so long as they do not harbor any terrorists, in which event we will turn whatever is left of that cesspit of a country, and its barbaric, backward, and utterly worthless goat-fucking inhabitants, into a pool of glass? That ought to cover our recompense for the trouble the damn savages have put us to. Kiss our collective arse, Karzai, and don't ever make us come back there again! I think that's fair. Now let's see if we can find any political leadership here at home, with the stones to do that.

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says, "Yea, it ain't his fault - the war made him crazy, is called battle fatigue...

Many willing to cut Afghan shooting suspect slack
18 Mar.`12 - He is accused of the kind of crime that makes people shiver, the killing of families in their own homes under cover of night, the butchery of defenseless children. Under normal circumstances, Americans would dismiss such an act as worthy of only one response: swift and merciless punishment.

Not so in the case of Robert Bales — at least, not for some Americans. So far, many seem willing to believe that a 10-year U.S. military veteran, worn down by four tours of combat and perhaps suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, simply snapped. That somehow there must be, if not an excuse, at least an explanation. Exactly what set off the Army sergeant accused of massacring 16 civilians in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province is far from clear. But already, organizations and individuals with differing agendas have portrayed Bales as the personification of something that is profoundly broken, and have seized on his case to question the war itself or to argue that the American government is asking too much of its warriors.

On the website of Iraq Veterans Against the War, organizer Aaron Hughes declared that Afghan war veterans "believe that this incident is not a case of one 'bad apple' but the effect of a continued U.S. military policy of drone strikes, night raids, and helicopter attacks where Afghan civilians pay the price." Those veterans, he wrote, "hope that the Kandahar massacre will be a turning point" in the war. "Send a letter to the editor of your local paper condemning the massacre and calling for an end to our occupation in Afghanistan," Hughes wrote. On March 11, authorities say, Bales, a 38-year-old married father of two from Washington state, stalked through two villages, gunned down civilians and attempted to burn some of the bodies. The dead included nine children.

In Lake Tapps, Wash., neighbors knew Bales as a patriot, a friendly guy who loved his wife and kids, and a man who never complained about the sacrifices his country repeatedly asked of him. They find it hard to believe he could be capable of such depravity. "I kind of sympathize for him, being gone, being sent over there four times," said Beau Britt, who lives across the street. "I can understand he's probably quite wracked mentally, so I just hope that things are justified in court. I hope it goes OK." Paul Wohlberg, who lives next door to the Baleses, said: "I just can't believe Bob's the guy who did this. A good guy got put in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Talk like that infuriates Fred Wellman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel from Fredericksburg, Va., who did three tours in Iraq. He said comments like those of Bales' neighbors and his attorney simply feed into the notion of "the broken veteran." Wellman does not deny that 10 years of war have severely strained the service. But while others might see Bales as a wounded soul, Wellman sees a man who sneaked off base to commit his alleged crimes, then had the presence of mind to "lawyer up" as soon as he was caught. "That may play well with certain circles of the civilian community, which doesn't understand our lives," Wellman said. "But he's going to be tried by a military court ... and chances are three or four of those guys had things happen to them, may have had three or four tours, may have lost people, may have been blown up. And NONE of them snapped and killed 16 people." He added: "It's just too easy, and a lot of us, we're not buying it."

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See also:

US rampage soldier saw friend's leg blown off the day before he attacked villagers...

US soldier accused in Afghan massacre had been upset at casualty in unit, lawyer says
March 16, 2012 | The day before the rampage that killed 16 Afghan villagers, the U.S. soldier accused of the mass killings saw his friend's leg blown off, his lawyer said.

Seattle attorney John Henry Browne told The Associated Press that his client's family provided him with details of the injury to another U.S. soldier. The details have not been independently verified. "His leg was blown off, and my client was standing next to him," he said. It isn't clear whether the incident might have helped prompt the horrific middle-of-the-night attack on civilians in two villages last Sunday. Browne said it affected all of the soldiers at the base.

The suspect had been injured twice during his three previous deployments to Iraq, and didn't want to go to Afghanistan to begin with, Browne said. Browne declined to release his client's name, citing concerns for the man's family, which is under protection on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma. But he said the soldier has two young children, ages 3 and 4. The soldier, a 38-year-old father of two who is originally from the Midwest, deployed last December with the 3rd Stryker Brigade, and on Feb. 1 was attached to a "village stability operation." Browne described him as highly decorated and said he had once been nominated for a Bronze Star, which he did not receive.

He said the soldier and his family had thought he was done fighting. During tours in Iraq, the soldier suffered a concussive head injury in a car accident caused by a roadside bomb, Browne said, and he suffered a battle-related injury that resulted in surgery to remove part of his foot. He was screened by health officials after the head injury before he redeployed, Browne said. He did not know if his client had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, but said it could be an issue at trial if experts believe it's relevant. He and the rest of his brigade had initially been told they wouldn't have to go to Afghanistan, Browne said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/1...shooter-chooses-seattle-lawyer/#ixzz1pWQNOW2q

 

[waltky]

Big opium haul in Afghanistan...

6,600 lbs. of opium seized in Afghanistan
May 12,`12 (UPI) -- A joint Afghan and coalition military operation in southern Afghanistan seized 6,600 pounds of opium, officials said.

The International Security Assistance Force said the joint operation conducted two counter-narcotic missions Tuesday through Thursday in Helmand and Uruzgan provinces, Khaama Press reported Saturday.

An additional 1,320 pounds of poppy seeds and 330 pounds of morphine were netted in the raids, ISAF said. Drug-processing equipment and explosives were also seized, and the drugs were destroyed on site.

Source