The situation in Afghanistan continues to go from bad to worse.
The myth Americans were told about Afghanistan by the Obama Administration is that the increased troop presence would be necessary to keep the Taliban away while we, at huge expense, trained Afghan police and troops and embarked on yet another farcical joyride of nation building.
Except President Obama handicapped our forces with ridiculous rules of engagement and a set in stone withdrawal date that ensured that the Taliban would just wait us out, and that the other Afghans would hedge their bets knowing in advance when we were on the way out.The Obama Administration also made sure our military commanders went out of their way to order our troops to conduct themselves with appeasement and political correctness in mind.
The results were predictable. Almost everything our warriors accomplished with heroic operations like Operation Mountain Thrust has been undone.
Our supposed 'allies' the Afghan security forces, are murdering 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 suspended.Even Bagram prison, our main military holding area for Taliban killers has been turned over to Afghan control, which means most of them will be back waging jihad again shortly.
The Pentagon's response tells volumes about about what's going on in Afghanistan. The murders of our troops in Afghanistan? Hey, it's their own fault. Because our troops don't sufficiently bow down to Sharia or 7th century Islamic norms of behavior.
According to President Obama's head of the JCS, General Martin Dempsey, a lot of these murders are due to what he calls "cultural affronts' on our part.
So our troops are being put through heavy 'Muslim sensitivity ' training, with heavy penalties for infractions. The orders include:
* Wear surgical gloves whenever handling a copy of the Koran.
* Never walk in front of a praying Muslim.
* Never show the bottom of boots while sitting or lying across from a Muslim, which in Islam is considered an insult.
* Never share photos of wives or daughters.
* Never smoke or eat in front of Muslims during the monthlong Ramadan fasting.
* Avoid winking, cursing or nose-blowing in the presence of Muslims — all viewed as insults in Islam.
* Avoid exiting the shower without a towel.
* Avoid offering and accepting things with the left hand, which in Islam is reserved for bodily hygiene and considered unclean.
Yes, show the bottoms of your feet to a Muslim or blow your nose in front of him and it's perfectly understandable if he murders you. You had it coming!
What's going on here, of course, is a simple failure to process reality by people like General Dempsey and our commander in chief.
The Afghans aren't killing our troops with the very weapons we've given them because somebody winked or offered someone a pack of cigarettes with their left hand. They're killing them because they consider us infidels, have no respect for us, and want to be able to prove their bonifides to the Taliban as jihadis once we leave.
It wasn't always that way. Here's something I've heard from virtually everyone I've talked to that has served in Afghanistan. In the very beginning the Afghans saw us defeating the Taliban left and right and actually holding territory. Once they saw that we weren't like the Russians, some of them were prepared to serve with us on our terms, and were actually decent, trustworthy soldiers.
At that point, we could have made separate deals with the local Pashtun tribal chiefs to buy their opium, give them a monthly stipend and a few arms to protect themselves. For a lot of them it might have been a better deal than paying taxes to the Taliban and taking whatever price the Taliban offered them to buy their crop and take it across the border to Pakistan for processing.
Instead, we became committed to trying to turn Afghanistan into Belgium. We cobbled together a central government most Afghans thought of as removed and corrupt, concentrated on building a huge standing Afghan army and police, changed our tactics to be more in line with an emphasis on political correctness and hearts and minds and hunkered down for a war of attrition that settled nothing,
Once President Obama got his hands on Afghanistan, changed our rules of engagement and announced a written in stone departure date ( his words) things regressed fairly quickly to where they are now.The Afghan troops we were recruiting changed remarkably by all accounts. The majority are reluctant to follow orders, shirk actual combat whenever they can, and are noted for thieving, corruption and actual betrayal.At this point, they realize there are essentially no consequences from us for this behavior.
The Afghans have an old fashioned view of war. You either win, or you lose, and terms like 'exit strategy' aren't part of their vocabulary. They see us as losing, the Taliban as winning and any respect they once had for us is mostly gone.And forcing our troops to go through 'Muslim sensitivity training' isn't going to do anything to change that..
They can't wait for us to leave so they can settle things in their accustomed style and go back to the 7th century norms they enjoy so well.
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