Who is the enemy?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/international/2012/February/international_February203.xml&section=international

US soldier shoots dead Afghan guard: official (AFP)

5 February 2012

Kabul — A US soldier shot dead an Afghan guard outside a military base in northern Afghanistan, apparently believing he was about to attack him, a local official said Sunday.

The incident on Thursday in Sari Pul province came less than a fortnight after an Afghan soldier shot dead four unarmed French troops at a base in the east of the country.

‘A US soldier has shot dead an Afghan guard three days ago’, Sari Pul provincial security chief Sayed Jahangir said on Sunday.

‘The American shot dead his Afghan colleague due to a misunderstanding. Apparently he thought the guard was trying to attack him.’

[Bonhomme Richard]

1. I can't imagine what it would be like to work side by side with....

heavily armed people and not knowing who to trust behind you.

[lsewpershad]

2. Get the hell out

of the peoples' country.

[think]

3. What good can come from this? Bring the troops home NOW! /nt

[JSnuffy]

4. This could have been me...

I was downrange and travelling between FOBs in a civilian style vehicle. It was night and the power grid was crap so there was little or no light.

I approached a cross bar checkpoint and stopped at the same point I always did. Apparently it was was too close for the ANP (Afghan National Police) guard and he raised his weapon and pointed it square at my face and started yelling.

He wasn't acting within his SOP and I would have (technically) been within my rights to defend myself. As I was alone and he already had the drawn on me, this seemed like a poor choice. Not to mention the whole common sense thing of not killing someone if I didn't have to.

I talked/gestured him down and continued on but I think that if I had had some folks with me who were quicker on the trigger it could have gotten ugly in about 1/8 of a second.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. It'a a FUBAR war. We lost. Get out. Get over it.

[bemildred]

6. So, everybody is a bit freaked out? nt

[T S Justly]

7. The Military ...

It's up there with Wall St.

[leveymg]

8. That was a constant problem in Vietnam, as well.

This looks like it's not ending any better for us. Perhaps, worse.

[pretzel4gore]

9. US policy was to terrify Vietnamese

intentionally, facing inevitable defeat, the US spread horror stories (remember the huge crowds fleeing the 'communists' shown nightly in the pigmedia tv/news?) which cost untold number of lives.... when in fact most Vietnamese were either sympathisers or outright agents of the overthrow of imperial colonialism...and that includer the ARVN, who were in many cases actual VietMinh soldiers. Unfortunately, the big lie was kept up at huge public expense until Vietnam faded from popular memory- similar to how the geebush era has been quietly ignored since o'bama was put into WHouse (he was a black guy and, wow that really showed us how much things had changed, for better etc!)
lol