Enemy inside the gates
Is it any wonder that PTSD is effecting so many of our troops when folks who were blowing them up a few weeks ago are now inside their perimeter without having to fire another shot? (Stars & Stripes link)
It’s widely assumed by the soldiers of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, that Massoud killed two of their buddies.
But Capt. Michael Kolton, 29, the company’s commander, won’t ask the former insurgent leader about it.
“I don’t want to know the answer.”
Less than a week after a roadside bomb killed two of Kolton’s men in July, Massoud showed up at his austere mountain base after dark and sat down for tea. The clandestine encounter, one of many Kolton says he had with militants in northern Kunar, set the ball rolling for Massoud’s defection from the insurgency — along with 100 of his fighters — in February.
Yeah, I understand how COIN works and I understand how important the Anbar Awakening and the Sons of Iraq were in Iraq, but this isn’t Iraq and the tactics that the Taliban are using have changed. I understand the position this company commander finds himself in, and I sympathize, I really do, but holy smokes, for the welfare of my troops, I’d want to know the answer.
Category: Terror War
We can’t trust the ‘vetted’ Afghani Soldiers in uniform. (Range safety duty takes on a whole different meaning when Afghanis are on the range with us, screw the stupid paddle, I kept my M4 ready) How the heck are we supposed to be able to trust a group of guys that were dropping mortars and IED last week?
All this does if fill logistics holes for the Talibans benifit. This group ‘defects’, I’d be willing to bet money they were low on ammo and food. We pay and feed them for a while, then when they get a resupply from the Taliban or get close enough to find a weakness to exploit, back to killing us.
They used to call those spies. We know what the Geneva Convention says about spies. Why are we not following the ENTIRE Geneva Convention?
The reintegration fairy will work. They won’t turn on us as long as we pay them. Right…
I sure hope this O-3 knows what he’s about. For his mens sake, if nothing else.
I don’t know if I could do that. Upon confirmation that he was guilty, I fear I would be seriously tempted to take matters into my own hands…and screw Leavenworth.
OS54,
Wait until he’s outside the post, and at least 100 yds downrange; then, “Shot? What shot? Did anyone hear a shot? I didn’t hear any shot.”