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Earlier today I wrote about the Marines who were ordered to get rid of their weapons in order to meet with the SecDef. I just picked up the following update from telegraph.uk
Major General Mark Gurganus later said he gave the order because Afghan troops attending the talk were unarmed and he wanted the policy to be consistent for all.
A commenter on this blog post earlier today told me the same thing.
Having a General give this order is even worse than a DA Civilian doing it. This General should be relieved immediately. He should also renounce himself being a Marine and be ashamed of himself.
What does this say of him as a leader if he can’t trust his own Marines? What does it say of him as a leader if he doesn’t trust the men he leads? I am disgusted a someone who called themselves a General and a Marine would give such an order.
In a sign of the nervousness surrounding Mr. Panetta’s trip, the Marines and other troops who were waiting in a tent for the defense secretary to speak were abruptly asked by their commander to get up, place their weapons — M-16 and M-4 automatic rifles and 9-mm pistols — outside the tent and then return unarmed. The commander, Sgt. Maj. Brandon Hall, told reporters he was acting on orders from superiors.
“All I know is, I was told to get the weapons out,” he said. Asked why, he replied, “Somebody got itchy, that’s all I’ve got to say. Somebody got itchy; we just adjust.”
So I wonder what DA civilian blowhard got the nervous tick and couldn’t trust the same troops who lay their lives on the line every day and have done it on multiple tours. I can maybe understand this for the President, but the SecDef is the boss of this troops. What an utter sign of disrespect for our young men and women.
As everyone has heard by now a terrible incident happened over the weekend. It looks like 16 afghan civilians were murdered in their homes and it appears that a US Army soldier is being detained in connection with this. There are lots of reports on the web about this incident and from those open sources they say he is from Ft. Lewis Washington, is in the Army and is a mid-level NCO with a family.
Let me start by saying he is innocent until proven guilty, because that is the way our laws work. However if he is found guilty, he deserves any punishment he gets which is appropriate for the crime. If the soldier did commit this horrendous crime he may end of up with a lot more blood on his hand that that of 16 Afghans. If he is guilty and there are any retaliations for this, any US or coalition member who is wounded or killed as a result will also have their blood on his hands. Besides killing non-combatants on the battlefield, another reason this act angers me is because our soldiers may be killed over this stupid and selfish act.
There is no possibly excuse I can think of which would justify such an action. None whatsoever. However I can see how this could happen and even that is hard for me to imagine. Our soldiers are under immense pressure over there, just like they were in Iraq. But I think even more so in Afghanistan. They are being killed and wounded every day by an invisible, cowardice enemy. Lately they have been getting murdered themselves by our “friends”, Afghan National Security Forces. There is also no outlet for these guys. There is so much political correctness going on and zero tolerance mentality happening that I could see a soldier getting so pissed off. I could envision a soldier being shot and blown up only so much and not allowed to react to it as soldiers are trained to do that they would snap.
One soldier doing this is not a reflection of our military as a whole, their mental well-being or how soldiers are recruited or trained. All of these were “stupid” reasons brought up today when I was interviewed on the BBC. This is no different than a cop who loses it and kills innocent people or a firefighter who starts committing arson. An act by a single person does not reflect the attitude, training or professionalism of an entire organization.
This is also no reason to “feel sorry” for our military or think they are victims. Did people think Timothy McViegh was a victim when he blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City? Why not, he was a war vet. That is how ludicrous such an argument or thought is that military service is the reason for this happening.
None of us can see the future and know how bad will be for us, but I think I can say with certainty that this is going to do a lot of damage to our reputation in the eyes of Afghan people. How can the Afghans trust us to help them? Kind of like how can our soldiers trust their afghan security partners when they keep killing or training to kill our soldiers. It is a two way street now because of this and it is not going to end well.
Efforts to forge a deal that will govern the American military presence in Afghanistan beyond a planned U.S troop withdrawal in 2014 are faltering, current and former Afghan officials said on Monday.
They said obstacles include disputes over the transfer of American-run detention centers, night raids and quarrels within the Afghan president’s inner circle that led one of his top advisers to threaten to resign.
Good, we don’t need to worry about being there any longer. We are already going to fund their military and corrupt government for years with Billions a year in taxpayer dollars. We have moved the bus, given them a tour and now it is time to hand them the keys and let them live in what was built. They can either destroy it or make it better….their choice.
Yes I think it is safe to assume that the practice of COIN doctrine in Afghanistan is officially dead. It did not produce the results that everyone hoped for (remember HOPE is not a method), and if anything it may have cost a few more lives.
I remember when the Petraeus took over CENTCOM and there was talk of trying to implement the same Anbar Awakening concept that was successful in Iraq, over in Afghanistan. I expressed serious doubts then that it would work. I have said time and time again that Afghanistan is not Iraq and never would be. I have given that line in presentations, interviews and on this blog and other blogs. The people of Afghanistan are nowhere near what the people of Iraq are like.
I have word now that the famed COIN Academy in Kabul is now shutting down in about 5 months. So does that mean that everyone has learned and mastered it? Or does it mean they realize it isn’t making a difference. I think it is the latter.
I also feel that the rash of murders of our soldiers by our friends and allies, the Afghans, has put the final nail in the coffin of COIN. Our soldiers look at every Afghan now with a more suspicious eye than ever before. There are bases in Afghanistan that used to not allow soldiers to walk about with a loaded magazine in their weapon, telling soldiers to have a full loaded mag all the time. It is truly going to hell in a handbasket and over there and soldiers all over are talking about “what if” and different contingencies if the Afghans were to turn on them. Continue reading →
Afghanistan wants NATO to put on public trial those who burned copies of the Quran at a NATO base, President Hamid Karzai’s office said Thursday, after a third day of bloody protests over the incident.
It said NATO had agreed to a trial, but that could not be immediately confirmed.
It is time to go. Yes I said it. I am done with these people. I am done at watching friends of mine die, get wounded and come back to a lifetime of issues over these people. I never thought I would say it and who knows, this could be emotion talking right now.
I will write about this more over the weekend, but I can tell you that I have felt for a while that the time to pack our toys and go home has come. I am sick and tired of Karzai who has lost his way since he was first put into power running his mouth off. He needs to quit stealing oxygen and disappear.
I am tired of a government that steals from its people, is corrupt to the core, only looks after itself and those around it, plays both sides of the fence and for the most part ignores its own people. The entire Afghan government may not be corrupt, but the top levels are, therefore the lower levels see that and think it is acceptable.
I will also be thoroughly disgusted in NATO and especially our own military if they try to hold and trial and dole any kind of punishment over this to our military members. As long as burning a flag and a bible is ok in the US, then our military and administration don’t have any argument to hold a soldier accountable over an “accident”.
These riots are not country-wide. I have friends in the north and in the south of Afghanistan who are telling me that everything is quiet and as normal as always. These riots are being instigated by anti-government forces and those forces are capitalizing on the ignorant and easily manipulative people of Afghanistan to conduct these riots. But of course all the media does is report it, and all the world does it watch those MSM reports.
I don’t understand why the Afghans don’t look at this and just say En ‘Shahla (God’s will) like they do when their kids get run over, play with explosives, or they accidentally shoot someone. I mean they use that bullshit excuse for everything else. So why not think that these Korans being accidentally burned were in God’s will too?
So everyone has heard about the accidental burning of Korans in Afghanistan. What people are not hearing is how it happened, what was done when it was discovered, and what some of our soldiers did and how they risked their own bodies to stop it.
But just like with the video that came out of Marines urinating on dead Taliban, the civilian leadership (i.e. The President and the Secretary of Defense) have already both come out promising a quick and thorough investigation into the incident almost sounding like the soldiers are guilty before given a chance.
There is no doubt the military is going to investigate the incident so the President does not need to micr0-manage the situation and make it sound like he personally is going to head to Afghanistan to interview suspects.
There is a lot more to this situation and hopefully all of that information can become public soon so the American people can see for themselves how soldiers quickly put themselves at risk to remove the books that were accidentally thrown away.
The President and his chai boy, the SecDef, just need to quit trying to interject themselves into every situation and let the military handle it quickly, fairly and with the proper level of attention.
The reality is that the only true Koran (according to Islam) is one written in Arabic and since most of Afghanistan is illiterate in their own language the chance of them bring able to read the Koran is even less likely.
