Panetta, Allen to reassure troops about green-on-blue attacks

The Associated Press reports that US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Marine Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan will spend this week trying to reassure NATO troops that they have confidence in the measures commanders have put in place to prevent further “insider” attacks by Afghan troops and polcie on our own forces;

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other U.S. officials heading to the meetings say they expect to reassure allies that military commanders are doing all they can to stem the tide of insider attacks, in which Afghan troops or insurgents dressed in their uniforms turn their guns on the coalition forces that they are training and fighting alongside.

Compounding those military threats, however, is a recent spike in political tensions between Afghanistan’s government leaders and the U.S.

Somehow, I’m having a deja vu moment here, because I’ve heard it all before. You’d have thought that commanders would be doing all they could before the last few weeks. When I see Panetta on patrol outside the wire with an Afghan unit, maybe then I’ll believe it. Even if he stepped outside the wire once or twice. But then he doesn’t even trust US forces to have weapons around him, so I don’t see that happening.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai complained that the war effort is wrongheaded, and that coalition forces are not fighting the right enemy.

Just days ahead of the NATO meeting, Panetta was uncharacteristically sharp, criticizing Karzai for complaining rather than thanking the troops who have sacrificed their lives for his country. Karzai’s argument that NATO is wrongly going after the Taliban in Afghanistan when it should be fighting insurgents in Pakistan’s safe havens could further erode support for the war, particularly among members of Congress.

Last time I checked, Karzai commands his own Army and he could be going after the Taliban in Pakistan if he really thought that was the solution to his country’s problems, but, once again, I don’t see Karzai leading his own forces into Waziristan anytime in the near future.

Karzai should be complaining to his own commanders about this “insider” attack problem which is distracting us from killing Taliban in mass quantities, instead of pretending that he knows stuff about war-fighting. I guess he’s feeling the heat as our withdrawal date nears and his future isn’t looking too bright.

Category: Terror War