Kabul Riots

Wow...I couldn't agree with you more. The added pressure of legal repercussions to our soldiers who are already under so much stress is so asinine. Ungrateful sobs.

I just came upon your comments on the recent Kabul riots during my 26th visit to
Afghanistan. You guys are totally missing the point. I was in norhern Afghanstan after 9/11 and watched our B-52s bombing the Taliban and al-Q off the ridge above Khojabauhuddin. Kids were hugging me and cheering. When I was in Kabul after the Taliban were chased out there were GIs hanging out with Afghans in the Chicken Street bazaar, people applauded an ISAT street patrol as it went by, etc. Then some clown at Bagram instituted new ROEs, ordering US convoys to speed through the city, disobey local traffic laws, etc. in the name of "security". The accident that triggered the riots was NOT an isolated incident--for months now people in the US mlitary as well as locals have reported a long series of similar though not as srious incidents, and warned that Kabulis were becoming angry with troops that came as liberators but were behaving more and more like occupiers and overlords. We have royally screwed ourselves with this kind of stupid behavior, and for no good reason; idiotic ROEs end up getting good soldiers killed down the line and sabotage the very reason they are risking their lives in placres like Afghanistan.

Note: I spent6 months with an Army CA team in the streets of Baghdad, and those guys made a pont of treating the local Iraqis with respect. Result: our AO was the safest in all of Baghdad, and locals went out of their way to warn us about Bad Guys who planned to attack us. Blind support of misguided orders only hurts the great majority of our soldiers who are trying to carry out difficult missions against great odds.