These two paragraphs from a New York Times article upset me so much I hardly know what to think about it:
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 is intended to maintain good relations with the Afghan police and militia units the United States has trained to fight the Taliban. It also reflects 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.
The article was in reference to the struggles soldiers are having with looking the other way while these Afghan chicken hawks rape and abuse young boys (occasionally girls). Domestic Afghan Criminal law? Please. This is a country that seems to encourage (or at least condones) the perpetuation of child sexual abuse as policy.
Really? These are our allies?
Isn’t not being raped a basic human right?
And while I’m thinking about it, just because these…men have always been a rapin’, does that mean they always should?
Does it really take a doctorate and a radio telescope to see when something is wrong?
If placating our “allies” requires allowing them to violate children because they’ve always done so, then we need to rethink our own military’s policy.
I spent several years witnessing first hand the terrible cost perpetrators of this “policy” exact on the victims of it (meaning rapists and victims–though domestically rather than internationally), and the closest I can come to describing how it makes me feel is rage.
And I know that makes my own faith–my own Christianity–sound feeble and hypocritical, but I could not ignore something like that. And I have nothing but respect for the soldiers who acted, and are going to lose their careers because of it.
I will just say it. It’s difficult for me to see the wrong in putting a beat down on a sack of goat crap like this Afghan commander. He’s lucky they didn’t kill him.
My response to all of this is there are some things in life that should not be compromised–one of which is the right of children to experience life at their own speed, and to not be subject to things like what our soldiers are told to ignore in Afghanistan.
Ignoring the screams of children is wrong, and the message this…policy is perpetuating is also wrong.
No, it isn’t the United States.
Yes, they should police these men in Afghanistan, in accordance with Afghan law.
They aren’t going to.
In my opinion, ignoring this crap is going to backfire big-time.
There has to be something we can do?
At the very least, the people entrusted with command of these men–as well as our commander-in-chief, should create a dialogue with our “allies.”
Because eventually, someone is going to go all “Marcellus Wallace” on these Afgan commanders.
Think it can’t get any worse? Wait a while.
A Work in Progress 