The U.S. may be ready to put a little more trust in Afghan troops

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In this incident several insurgents were killed and I can tell you that the security perimeter was not breached and the insurgents were being stopped by Afghan and ISAF forces very effectively.
NATO spokesman Brigadier General Josef Blotz • Refuting claims by the Taliban that they killed dozens of Afghan and coalition fighters in the midst of a firefight outside Jalalabad’s Bagram Air Base. Instead, six Taliban solders were killed and two coalition soliders were wounded. The Taliban’s attack was flashy but ineffective – first a car bomb went off and then a bunch of insurgents tried to storm the air base, but never got close. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jun 2010 11:26

The president has lost his confidence in the capability of either the coalition or his own government to protect this country. President Karzai has never announced that NATO will lose, but the way that he does not proudly own the campaign shows that he doesn’t trust it is working.
Former Afghan intelligence director Amrullah Saleh • Explaining his feelings about Hamid Karzai’s take on the war. Essentially, he has no confidence in either his country or his coalition. He reportedly thinks the Americans were behind the attack (on a national peace conference, no less) that led to Saleh’s resignation. He and one other top security official resigned in the wake of the attack. A diplomat hiding behind anonymity agrees: “Karzai told me that he can’t trust the Americans to fix the situation here. He believes they stole his legitimacy during the elections last year. And then they said publicly that they were going to leave.” source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

I am sorry that my recent public recollection of those discussions of 15 years ago inaccurately reflected your thinking on some specific social issues in the military. To be clear, the failure on the ground in Srebrenica was in no way the fault of the individual soldiers.
Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander John Sheehan • Regarding some comments he made about Dutch soldiers last week. He claimed that European armies had been weakened by those who tried to “socialize” them (a.k.a. allow gay soldiers), and specifically mentioned the Srebrenica massacre, a 1995 atrocity where a small group of Dutch peacekeepers were ambushed by Serbian soldiers – an attack that led to the deaths of over 7,000 Muslims men and boys, as well as the resignation of many Dutch leaders in 2002. Sheehan’s comments sparked such outrage that a defamation suit was threatened against him – well, until this apology was accepted not long after Sheehan wrote it. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat.
Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McCrysthal • Regarding deaths of Afghan civilians at checkpoints. Despite stronger rules at checkpoints designed to limit civilian deaths at the hands of the U.S. or NATO, it hasn’t worked. While other changes (particularly the limiting of airstrikes) have led to a 28 percent decrease in civilian deaths, according to United Nations researchers, on-the-ground civilian attacks have turned the tide against the coalition in some cases. source