AFGHANS TURN AGAINST U.S.
General explains

"... A 15-year-old “tea boy” at a U.S. base opened fire on Marine special forces trainers exercising at a gym, killing three of them and seriously wounding another; a 60- or 70-year-old farmer, who volunteered to become a member of a village security force, turned the first gun his American special forces trainers gave him at an “inauguration ceremony” back on them, killing two; a police officer who, his father claims, joined the force four years earlier, invited Marine Special Operations advisers to a meal and gunned down three of them, wounding a fourth, before fleeing, perhaps to the Taliban."
"General Allen... suggested... some insider attacks might be traced to religious fasting for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, combined with unseasonable summer heat, leaving Afghans hungry, tetchy, and prone to impulsive acts, guns in hand."
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175587/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_losing_it_in_washington/

NON JUDICIAL PUNISHMENT FOR URINATING ON CORPSES




"Despoiling of the dead is illegal under the Geneva conventions as well as under US military law.... (Yet) Three of the Marines involved in the video that surfaced in January of soldiers urinating on the corpses of Afghans have received "nonjudicial punishment" on Monday for their roles in the incident. Because they received "nonjudicial punishment," their names do not have to be released. There are no criminal charges; the military describes it as "an administrative matter.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/08/27-8

ANGELS TO PROTECT TRAINERS AGAINST ATTACKS BY AFGHAN TRAINEES

"... after a spate of attacks that included the killing of six Marine trainers this month.... the military decreed that American and NATO service members should always carry a loaded magazine in their weapons, to save precious moments if attacked by Afghan forces. Another initiative, now a priority, is a program named “Guardian Angel” that calls for one or two soldiers to monitor the Afghans during every mission or meeting... The “angels,” whose identities are not disclosed to the Afghans, must be prepared to fire on anyone who tries to kill a coalition service member...
"Only a handful of the 31 attacks this year have clearly been a result of Taliban activity like infiltration. That suggests a level of malaise or anger within the Afghan forces that could complicate NATO’s training program, which relies on trust and cooperation... the military is realizing that it ultimately does not fully understand what is driving the attacks..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/world/asia/afghan-attacks-on-allied-troops-prompt-nato-to-shift-policy.html?_r=2

U.S. HELPS REWRITE AFGHAN SCHOOLBOOKS

"Afghanistan's.. education ministry has endorsed a new history curriculum for school students that deletes nearly four decades of the country's war-torn past... not much mention of (the Taliban) or the US-led forces that drove them from power and have stayed for more than a decade... the civil war and the Taliban regime had been wrapped up in just a few lines... US military officials say they had no discussions on content in the books, some of which were paid for with US money. But a spokesman for the US military in Kabul, David Lakin, added: ''Our cultural advisers reviewed the social studies textbooks for inappropriate material, such as inciting violence or religious discrimination."
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18579315

... TO COUNTERACT PREVIOUS U.S. SCHOOLBOOKS

"Taliban in Madrassas with texts our taxes designed.... Look up texts our taxes spawned at University of Nebraska Omaha. Hate texts, illegally pushing one established religion, and glorifying murderous warfare for Allah. Delivered to Afghanistan Taliban to create militant terrorists. The neocon plan was to aim them at "godless communists." Another "initiative" that started what we cannot now stop. No exit plan."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/23/260889/-School-Vouchers-create-Madrassas-here

"... during the presidency of Ronald Reagan — when all vision was still focused on the Cold War — the United States got itself into the business of sponsoring militant Islamic schools for Afghanistan, then a nation under the influence of the Soviet Union... The U.S. Agency for International Development was funding the foreign aid program that was essentially schooling this new generation of terrorists...
The plan: Flood rural Afghanistan with millions of schoolbooks preaching and teaching Islamic militancy. Books reportedly filled with language celebrating jihad (holy war), violent images of war... Primers from which boys learned math by counting pictures of soldiers, tanks, guns and land mines.
The purpose: Create a generation of militant Islamic freedom fighters — another term might be terrorists — who would rise up and run the godless Soviet communist forces out of Afghanistan. Which they did. Then they stuck around."
http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=3453

AFGAN ATTACKS ON US - MISSION FAILURE

"Trend of Afghan soldiers killing US counterparts speaks to 'mission failure' in Afghanistan... a US war strategy in tatters... a sweeping message from our Afghan allies... "your mission’s failed, get out or die."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/08/10

KABUL EMBASSY TO BE LARGER THAN BAGDAD

"... The building project going on is apparently part of a massive expansion of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, targeted to have it surpass the embassy in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, as the largest U.S. Embassy - in the world..."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/08/08-1


$500M KABUL EMBASSY EXPANSION

"The United States is bolstering its presence in Afghanistan with a 500 million dollar expansion of its Kabul embassy... Washington's Kabul embassy is already its biggest in the world, with about 1,100 employees, projected to rise to 1,200 by the end of the year..."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hmuDhk6gDGOjUtRZAT866kfUXV8g