New York Times: U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Afghan Allies’ Abuse of Boys

[philosslayer]

KABUL, Afghanistan — In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”

Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.

The policy has endured as American forces have recruited and organized Afghan militia to help hold territory against the Taliban. But soldiers and Marines have been increasingly troubled that instead of weeding out pedophiles, the American military was arming them in some cases and placing them as the commanders of villages — and doing little when they began abusing children.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html?_r=1

[riderinthestorm]

1. Horrific!

My heart just bleeds hearing this. That culture is sick to its very bones.

While not dismissing the horror of this story, I can't help but think how the commanders didn't have to issue any injunction about interfering in the abuse of girls and women.

That is just assumed to be ignored...



Rape culture in the US Armed Forces on display again...

[Tipperary]

47. Oh dear, I cannot believe that the same thing did not occur to me. Thank you so much

for saying this. You are absolutely right on this. Sad.

[TwilightGardener]

2. I'm saddened that our young men and women had to tolerate this sickness, on top of

everything else they faced over there. It must be mentally traumatic to witness this and not be able to stop it.

[cherokeeprogressive]

15. Trying to stop it gets some of them discharged... The Green Beret in another story got screwed.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/military/article32969865.html

[riderinthestorm]

20. The Green Berets are mentioned in the NYT article. Quinn leads the story

“The reason we were here is because we heard the terrible things the Taliban were doing to people, how they were taking away human rights,” said Dan Quinn, a former Special Forces captain who beat up an American-backed militia commander for keeping a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. “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.”

The policy of instructing soldiers to ignore pedophilia by their Afghan allies is coming under new scrutiny, particularly as it emerges that service members like Captain Quinn have faced discipline, even career ruin, for disobeying it.

After the beating, the Army relieved Captain Quinn of his command and pulled him from Afghanistan. He has since left the military.

Four years later, the Army is also trying to forcibly retire Sgt. First Class Charles Martland, a Special Forces member who joined Captain Quinn in beating up the commander.

[jwirr]

3. And how is this better than ISIS? Or for that matter how

is it better than Saddam? I imagine this has been going on from the beginning.

No wonder our soldiers are coming home with PTSD. Not only do they figure out that this was an illegal war they are expected to fight and then they figure out what my son-in-law recognized many years ago in Turkey. There is a lot about this culture that is not worth fighting for.

He learned that a man can commit a crime and let his wife go to prison for him. He got out of the military as fast as he could.

[cheapdate]

6. Well, as awful it's going to sound...

(A) ISIS - execution, rape, mutilation, genocide.

(B) Afghan military - execution, rape.


B is better than A.

[erronis]

22. You have to be kidding. All horrors of all types occur on the battlefield.

Every military (Afghan, Taliban, US, NATO, Russian, etc.) performs all of those acts (A-D) and a lot more.

We support foreign governments, we send our soldiers and paramilitary to other countries, we condone what they do. And we do it too.

Torture was not invented in the last 100 or 1000 or even 10,000 years.

We should not hold ourselves up as some shining light when we perform those same acts on our detainees as well as US citizens in our prisons.

I'd prefer that we (the US) just admit that life is hell and we're going to do whatever it takes to make sure that our top-tier folks are safe. And, by the way, all the rest of you - 90%, foreigners, brown skins - all the rest of you are expendable.

[cheapdate]

26. The question was, is ISIS any worse than the conventional Afghan military forces?

I proposed that ISIS is in fact worse.

I stand by that.

I did not propose that :
- the U.S. or its allies and agents do not torture.
- the U.S. prison system is a model of humanity and decency
- the U.S. does not support violent, cruel, and corrupt governments
- U.S. foreign policy should be held up a shining model of truth and justice

How would you answer the question? Is ISIS the same, better, or worse than the conventional Afghan military?

[markpkessinger]

34. I wonder if you'd feel that way . . .

. . . if you were an eight- or nine-year-old boy whose rectum was being torn apart by an adult rapist.

[cheapdate]

35. So, will you answer the question?

In your judgment, is ISIS the same, better, or worse than the conventional Afghan military?

Care to answer?

(P.S. - I can't say how I would feel in your hypothetical situation, but at the very least, I would think that in that situation, such a question would probably be irrelevant and the farthest thing from my mind.)

[markpkessinger]

38. I see the question as being an irrelevant distraction at this point n/t

[cheapdate]

42. I had the guts to answer the question,

and to give an answer to your hypothetical "thought experiment".

It's not an easy question to answer, is it? The one you're dodging.

[Duppers]

23. YES!

As horrible as B is, it's still better than A.

[elehhhhna]

29. So we should have installed Bill Cosby there

He only rapes.

Huh?

[cheapdate]

33. I say no. What say you?

[cheapdate]

4. Yes. This is a thing.

[smirkymonkey]

5. Horrifying article.

just turned my stomach.

[840high]

7. Disgusting.

[AngryAmish]

8. Cesspool.

[Dems to Win]

9. Just shut down the US military. Close it down, turn off the lights.

A 400 billion dollar a year military couldn't protect the country on 9/11/2001. They couldn't even protect the Pentagon with 45 minutes notice!!!

The US military can't/won't protect children from being horribly abused, on US military bases.



So many failures. And they torture our own people, our own soldiers, in the process.

Shut them down.

[SoapBox]

10. Sick...

Their culture...BULLSHIT.

[Enthusiast]

19. Fuck their culture.

[avaistheone1]

37. In this case I strongly agree.

[Enthusiast]

41. I respect certain aspects of their culture but not the boy thing. It seems ingrained and widespread.

Last edited Mon Sep 21, 2015, 06:26 AM - Edit history (1)

At least that is the impression I got when I read The Kite Runner. I'm not a fan of butt play with children.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. omigod. The one time the military respects a culture and it happens to

involve child abuse.

Words fail.

[markpkessinger]

31. What a painfully spot-on comment n/t

[markpkessinger]

12. What I want to know is . . .

. . . from where does the policy originate? How high up in the Pentagon does it go? Was anyone in the Obama administration of aware of it? If so, did they make any effort to change this horrific policy?

[riderinthestorm]

14. Sounds like it goes to the top

Four years later, the Army is also trying to forcibly retire Sgt. First Class Charles Martland, a Special Forces member who joined Captain Quinn in beating up the commander.

“The Army contends that Martland and others should have looked the other way (a contention that I believe is nonsense),” Representative Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who hopes to save Sergeant Martland’s career, wrote last week to the Pentagon’s inspector general. In Sergeant Martland’s case, the Army said it could not comment because of the Privacy Act.

When asked about American military policy, the spokesman for the American command in Afghanistan, Col. Brian Tribus, wrote in an email: “Generally, allegations of child sexual abuse by Afghan military or police personnel would be a matter of domestic Afghan criminal law.” He added that “there would be no express requirement that U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan report it.” An exception, he said, is when rape is being used as a weapon of war.

The American policy of nonintervention was intended to maintain good relations with the Afghan police and militia units the United States has trained to fight the Taliban. It also reflected a reluctance to impose cultural values in a country where pederasty is rife, particularly among powerful men, for whom being surrounded by young teenagers can be a mark of social status.

[markpkessinger]

17. Yes it does . . .

. . .and that is incredibly disturbing.

[questionseverything]

25. "interrogating" enemy combatants included children being raped infront of their fathers

current admin 's justice department refuses to prosecute them so i can not say i am surprised,saddened but not surprised

[philosslayer]

30. I can guarantee President Obama knew nothing about this

This is the result of a sick U.S. Military culture. They'd rather kill people and break things than help people genuinely in need.

[markpkessinger]

32. I wish I could be so certain . . .

. . . But when a President and his Justice Department refuse to prosecute known torturers, calling them "patriots," I have my doubts.

[DashOneBravo]

36. Don't forget

The kill list.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

44. This could be a politically hot issue

If the Pentagon didn't mention it in briefings, BHO would be open to blind-side attacks. I'd bet the White House is formulating very correct responses for BHO and the press secretary.

[reddread]

13. tax dollars at work

some people dont complain. some even support the architects and cheerleaders.
some people.

[Milliesmom]

16. Makes me wonder if not one

of the reasons for some of the suicides of our young men when they get home, the horrors of war. Do people know that any state can bring charges against Bush ? Is there one lawful, honest state attorney in any state with the guts to do so?




http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/us/marine-battalion-veterans-scarred-by-suicides-turn-to-one-another-for-help.html?mabReward=A2&moduleDetail=recommendations-0&action=click&contentCollection=Asia%20Pacific&region=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&src=recg&pgtype=article

[Dont call me Shirley]

18. Gregory...

The boys.....

[underpants]

21. I know someone who had negotiations with Afghan leaders

In their tents. Top level tribal leaders.

He told me that they all knew what the boys who were inside the tent were there for. There were other servants, these kids were just there.

He was disgusted by it but he had other business to deal with so he decided to let it pass.

[Duppers]

24. Horrible!! The hypocrisy of this is that homosexuality is forbidden by Islamic law!

And homosexual acts are punishable by dead in some Muslim countries.

[PufPuf23]

27. How horrible. Our military should do better.

Martland and Quinn are heroes.

[Ned Flanders]

28. Also ignoring the opium trade?

I know our military reports trying eradication, trying to pay them not to grow it, etc., but at risk of sounding cynical, no doubt we are also turning a blind eye to opium production, for the same reasons mentioned in this article.

[Warren DeMontague]

39. Honestly, in terms of moral outrage

I would put "tribal leaders raping boys" on a much higher peg than "farmers growing a plant that other people buy so they can use it to get high"

YMMV, of course.

[LuvNewcastle]

40. Yeah, I don't know if you can

do anything sicker than raping a child. If there's anything worse, I don't think I want to know about it.

[AngryAmish]

43. The US is seeking to bring in much more refugees, including Afghans

Is there some sort of pederast shortage in the US? Are their children Americans just won't rape?

[riderinthestorm]

45. AM kick! nt

[One_Life_To_Give]

46. This was first reported many years ago

Guess our short attention spans don't allow us to recall having been told about this practice many years back. When W occupied the White House and before the Iraq invasion distracted us.

[cheapdate]

49. There was a full-length documentary on HBO that covered it extensively

about a year ago.

[closeupready]

48. Well consider how much modern human slavery goes on, and how the US

responds to those who engage in it. It doesn't seem like we interfere with modern human slavery when it tries to remain reasonably covert. Why would we interfere with child sexual abuse amongst local Afghanis?

Not saying I agree with the failure to respond, but rather, that this failure is consistent with our general approach to human rights abuses outside the US.

[7962]

50. A Green Beret has been put out of the Army for intervening in 1 of these cases.

We should all contact our Congresspeople about THIS travesty as well.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/08/21/army-kicking-out-decorated-green-beret-who-stood-up-for-afghan-rape-victim/

And where did these orders come from? How HIGH UP did they come from? Someone needs their ass thrown in jail.