sexual abuse by Afghan allies becomes big story during '07 Iraq surge,good results, high trajectory?

U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies

New York Times, Joseph Goldstein, Sept. 20, 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/w...ld-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html

' . . . In September 2011, an Afghan woman, visibly bruised, showed up at an American base with her son, who was limping. One of the Afghan police commanders in the area, Abdul Rahman, had abducted the boy and forced him to become a sex slave, chained to his bed, the woman explained. When she sought her son’s return, she herself was beaten. Her son had eventually been released, but she was afraid it would happen again, she told the Americans on the base. . . '
The U.S. soldiers and officers on the front lines very much wanted to do something about cases like this.

But apparently, the Pentagon made an initial clumsy decision that sex between grown men and teenage boys was part of the culture of Afghanistan and thus we weren't going to do anything about it.

This has to be one of the all-time examples, should be written about in business textbooks, of sticking with an abstract decision when the actual facts are very much running in the opposite direction.
 
One big change might be if headquarters allows front line commanders to hire and fire their own Afghan allies. And since the culture in the military is generally not to fire people but to work with them, maybe most U.S. commanders don't go overboard but instead really hit the sweet spot as far as good management.

And therefore, this change to better address sexual abuse, certainly when it's right in front of us, certainly when it's reported to us and/or when we know or should know, might get the ball rolling and lead to a better occupation in both Afghanistan and Iraq in a number of different areas.

PS 'High Trajectory' means that things work out much better. At least it does in my universe!
 
Last edited:
The American - Canadian - British - etc. public does not want to know about "man love Thursdays."

Just this morning, a Persian-born colleague insisted that homosexuals are routinely, publically executed in much of the Moslem world.
Most of the outside world believes that raping young boys is a sin, but Pashtuns somehow justify it as "the sex that Allah does not see."
If NATO troops tried to impose conservative, western sexual mores on Afghan allies, they would find it far more difficult to de-Talibanise Afghanistan.
What was/is the Talibans' attitude towards man/boy sex?
 
Last edited:
something a U.S. Army Captain said:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/2...ld-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html

“But we were putting people into power who would do things that were worse than the Taliban did — that was something village elders voiced to me.”
We have lost some measure of credibility.

All because of weird constraints we've put on ourselves that we can't fire people. My God, if we were opening a chain of restaurants, we'd probably need to hire and fire a number of managers.

========

This U.S. Captain along with a Sergeant tried lecturing this abusive warlord. The man laughed. The Captain and Sergeant put him on the ground. Multiple times, as the Captain explained. Didn't quite beat the shit out of him, but came close. As Capt. Quinn explained, wanted the guy to understand that if he went near that boy or his mother again, there would be hell to pay. And for this, Captain Quinn was relieved of his command and pulled from Afghanistan, and he eventually left the military. And the Sergeant's career is at risk.

It seems like this hands-off policy is not something supported by most U.S. soldiers and officers who directly work with the Afghanis. It is a clumsy headquarters decision.
 
Last edited:
Maybe the peace movement in the U.S. is larger and more active, including during the Obama administration.

And maybe more veterans participate in the peace movement, like they did during the Vietnam era.
 
Last edited:
Here's a PBS Frontline documentary from April 20, 2010.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/dancingboys/

Yes, the story could have received major coverage much earlier. With the mainstream media, it almost seems like saturation coverage is the only thing which makes a difference.

=============

It's like we decided way too early to demote ourselves to junior status. And the U.S. attitude became, Hey, the only thing we're here to do is to support the Afghan authorities.
 
High Trajectory

The occupation and re-building of Iraq goes much better. There is no rise of ISIS. What's that? It's some dystopian timeline on Alt History, not even very believeable.
 
I once tried to talk about this very subject and everyone was adamant we would never allow that and it was nothing more than a filthy Islamaphobic stereotype. Most people refuse to believe the worst.

As to the effect, if believed, I could see an increased movement to pull our forces out of a NAMBLA paradise.
 
It's a human issue across pretty much all cultures and religions. If there's a statistically valid generalization, it might be that it's a male problem. And I kind of hate saying that because I'm a man, but I think it's largely the case. If a teenager is sexually abused, either a boy or a girl, the asshole abuser is much more likely to be a man than a woman.

For example, some first-rate jerk who abuses his teenage stepdaughter. He tells himself that she's a "whore" or a "slut" to justify his own behavior. No, she pretty much dresses like all other girls her age. He's just trying to put this on her so he'll have an excuse for his own behavior.

What will really slow down this sort of behavior is if other guys talk about it, and about how royally uncool we find it.

Being attracted to a teenager might be relatively normal. But for God's sake man, exercise a little zen skills of deflection. Neither try to hold onto the thought nor try to push it out, for either one will just make it a bigger deal. A feeling of lust, a desire, a crush, what you will, it will run its course. Like an ocean wave, it will rise but it will also fall. Just take a deep breath if nothing else. Don't talk yourself into something stupid and destructive.
 
Last edited:
So, how did this happen in Afghanistan during the rebuilding? I think it's the myth of steady progress.

We publicly turned things over to Afghanistan early in the game. And once we publicly turned them over, we couldn't take them back.
 
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/peopleevents/pandeAMEX99.html

Even with all of these accomplishments, MacArthur's greatest disappointment may have been his failure to convert the Japanese masses to Christianity, despite his conviction that "true democracy can exist only on a spiritual foundation," and will "endure when it rests firmly on the Christian conception of the individual and society."
So, MacArthur in Japan didn't do everything perfectly.
 
In both Afghanistan and Iraq, we should have played the card of religious liberty. Someone who works as a chef or a farmer or a cell phone salesperson may not know what a long history we have, with both struggles and failures. For example, that court cases first went against Jehovah Witnesses and then for them.

We should have matter-of-factly sold without overselling. No, we're not perfect but we have a long history and it is something we take seriously.

During the two occupations, I don't know how freely U.S., UK, and other coalition forces allowed Sunni and Shi'a Muslims to practice their faith according to their beliefs. If someone has some specific information, please jump in and let the rest of us know.
 
Last edited:
Top