Top U.S. General: We Don’t Know Why Afghan Troops Are Killing Us

[dixiegrrrrl]

General John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said he still doesn’t know why at least 10 NATO troops have died in the last two weeks at the hands of the Afghan forces they mentor.

He suspects it may have something to do with asking those Afghans to perform dangerous operations during the recent Muslim holy month. Maybe.

In what may have been the bluntest press conference delivered by a top commander since the U.S. went to war in 2001, Allen told Pentagon reporters he expected Afghanistan will still suffer from “violence” after U.S. combat ends in 2014;
that Hamid Karzai’s government has to act “now” to govern parts of the country that NATO has taken from the Taliban;
and that a reduction in violence in the country since last year “may not be statistically significant.”

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/allen-green-on-blue/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Top+Stories%29

[hifiguy]

1. And this fool is a General?

Maybe it's because we have been occupying their fucking country for the last 11 years.

It may be the most backward, primitive, retrograde hellhole on the planet, but it's the Afghans' backward, primitive, retrograde hellhole.

[PDJane]

2. He doesn't know???

Really?

Start a war that should never have been started for any reason, go in and kill wedding parties and women and children with drones, bomb sheep and shepherds with du munitions, kill crops, bomb groves of pomegranates, and then get pissy when they grow opium poppies....I don't know.

[LiberalAndProud]

3. So, is he Gen. Allen stupid or just intentionally obtuse?

It takes only a small inkling of insight to figure out a possible reason for the violence. The Afghans are no friendlier to occupying armies than US Americans would be under the same circumstance. Count on it, Gen. Allen, for now and for ever.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. It's a good thing that the "surge" worked ever so well. Kinda like Custer's charge did.

[Capt. Obvious]

5. No one knows why the people don't love President Diem

[Brigid]

6. Well, gee . . .

Could be we've long since worn out our welcome?

[broiles]

7. Because we are occupying their country and killing them with drones.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. What's his IQ? Let's see we invaded over a decade ago, killed thousands, and now

fly drones in their airspace, and he doesn't understand why some are killing US soldiers.

[Aerows]

9. If you don't know why

You haven't been paying attention. Afghanistan is a disaster area, and has been for centuries. You could give every single resident of Afghanistan a bed of roses to live in, and 95% of them are still going to hate you.

Get out, stay out, and let them sort out their own problems internally, because nothing anyone else does is going to help them until they help themselves.

[SoCalDem]

10. WTF??

Let me "splain it to you, sir...

People do NOT like it when you drop TENS-OF-THOUSANDS of soldiers in their country, and then attempt to change that country.

They tend to take offense when drones kill their families

They tend to take offense when they are occupied, told what to do and when to do it.

The more tribal the country, the more push-back.

[BOG PERSON]

11. i wonder why the US never attempted to carry out land reform in afghanistan

in feudal/semifeudal countries like that, land is always the most burning question, and i imagine that once you have settled this question it becomes a whole lot easier to tell your friends from your enemies.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. To be fair to the General,

every occupation army commander has had that issue starting with Caesar. He also wondered why the Gauls did not like the Legions who were bringing the Pax Romana to them. I could start with Athens, but Caesar's writings are classics.