US military accused of telling soldiers to overlook Afghan abuse of boys

Source. Guilty by association? Not protecting children? What do you think, OT?

I'm not surprised, as awful as it is.

Someone should say something to the Catholic Church, surely some priests will volunteer to go on a mission on behalf of those young boys in a heartbeat.

Who knew that Christian priests and followers of Islam would unite over something as deplorable as fondling young boys?

Yes. Blame religion. Jared was a Jew.

We should burn religious people. Gas chambers will do to.

To clarify: just the ones that lay their hands on children. The play on stereotypes was pretty obvious.

I thought you guys didn't want the US policing the world. Make up your minds.

Murica damned if they do, and damned if they don´t

I can understand the reasoning of not undermining the local authority, Regardless of it being not the best local authority at the time.

Of course if they witnessed it then they should intervine, regardless of their position. But the procecution of the crime can't really be done by the US military since that would make their job of helping trained and provide guidance to the Afghan police force so they can do their job, obsolete.

As horrible it is to say, I think leaving it to the local authorities is correct but the soldiers should of course have voiced out any sightings of such abuse so it can be prosecuted.

In addition to what @Treflis said, it also sounds like they weren't punished for not overlooking the issue...they were punished because they physically roughed up local commander. It's a really messed up story though...what a backwards and shitty place. I actually served there myself and seen some of the insane shit that goes on there first hand. It really is like dealing with people from the dark ages.

I have no idea how we can expect to build up a country with a literacy rate of 28%...where religious zealotry is rampant...and where disgusting traditions such as keeping boy sex slaves is common place.

the video said the guy the two soldiers scared the shit out of was the local police chief so i don't think there would be any prosecution.

the afghan that was in the interview made it sound like a cultural thing where people of status kept little boy sex slaves.

he said "if i didn't have a little boy i could not compete." or something to that effect.

Indeed. There is also the hypocrisy of hating on homosexuals while these grown men have their child molesting way with young boys; a far worse act than two consenting adults being in a committed relationship by any measure. Now imagine these "people" from the dark ages hating on the West for its "decadent" ways when this is happening in their own backyard. Utterly infuriating and disgusting.

As fucked up as it is , you are stepping to deep into their culture. They will start pushing back if They start to feel like their basic rights are endangered.

Sounds like a witch hunt by CNN tho, trying to create another month long fake rage for the ratings.

While I agree they will push back if we interfere too much with their culture (that's just a reality), I'm not sure how bad I feel about interfering with pigs having the "basic right" to keep adolescent boys as sex slaves.

@Renevent42: oh no, I wouldn't either, but it's just not their job there and counter productive to the mission.

Let that place rot from the inside.

Yea that would be bad for business. So much for spreading democracy and emancipating the Afghan people.

But I don't see how that's surprising. The U.S supports dictators and regimes of the worst kind and turns a blind eye to atrocities when it serves its foreign and security policies. What vexes me the most is the persisting fantasy of the moral high-ground that the regime and a big chunk of the citizenry feel entitled to.

You (the american army) were already there, and as the article shows, you're completely fine with pedophilia, torture and any violation of human rights as long as it's perpetraited by allies or somehow beneficial to you.

Dan Quinn and Charles Martland are heroes and your treatment of them is a fucking disgrace.

Edit: Also, how do these barbarians' vile practices allign with their hatred of homosexuals? Do they punish the boys for getting raped?

@GazaAli: every government does that. Sorry.

Not all, but some, which doesn't in any way change the morality of it; everybody does it is never a moral argument.

But more importantly, no other nation does it and believes it's God's gift to humanity.

@MlauTheDaft: nobody's fine with it. It's not our place to push in at. Should be the local governments.

Sorry, but that's how world turns. I wouldn't throw away a 10+ year mission just because I tried changing their culture. Slavery of all sorts is still alive in many places, should we go after them too?

@GazaAli: really? Because US is the only nation in the war right?

Its already a dumb idea to run around trying to prevent bad things happening to ppl when its part of their culture, but to do it to your allies is even dumber.

As the saying goes, you're defined be the people you associate with, and it seems you've spent those 10 years not so indirectly endorsing pedophilia. Oh, and you've had plenty effect on their culture as is, just nothing particularly positive, if positive at all.

Yet the U.S can't seem to get enough of it.

Regardless, I'm not discussing the expediency of it, I'm discussing the morality of it. The U.S does it -as some other countries do - because it's expedient to it, but how come it can derive that expediency and still be entitled not only to morality, but to the moral high-ground?

@MlauTheDaft: endorsing pedophilia lol....you just sound desperate to hate on the us army while ignoring the fact that your country has Probally been there just as long.....

Our newly elected government actualy did shut down our ongoing "Iraq Comittee" immediately because it was "too expensive," and we are indeed a close ally of the US. I'm so proud...

And yeah.... Actively punishing your soliders for stopping an ally from raping a boy is the same as endorsing pedophilia.

@GazaAli: not my problem. We help a lot of people and are asked for help by a lot of ppl. Sometimes it's conflict sometimes it isn't.

I bet rarely anyone knows that the US is in Africa today building water systems. Not telling where else they are helping out. But positive things don't get ratings.

@MlauTheDaft: and your country is?

They were punished for beating the guy up. And they were only removed. Actions like that, right or wrong, puts soldiers in danger even more that they are. Beating someone up is not the way to do it.

What are you talking about?

Send Batman to deal with it.

@GazaAli: just a response to you saying US loves to do it, which I took as a response to how they are in a lot of the scenarios that go on today...

Besides that, I'm just saying it's not the USs problem to try stopping that part of the culture. That's why they are training local police. To handle these situations. But because of their culture that high classed men have boy slaves. That would be just a totally different war to take on.

Its fucked up no doubt. The soldiers aren't being punished for there reasoning, just their actions. Still don't agree.

Served in Iraq, 05. Standing order not to interfere in domestic situations and abuses directly lead to 2 separate deaths. My platoon was ordered to stand down, rather then protect civilian population. It should be our place. 1 instance an Iraqi boy who sold candy at the same stall all year pointed out a bomb placed on the road to us by waving us down. An old man grabbed the boy and brutally beat him. We stopped the man before he killed him but could neither detain the man or take the boy with us. Our interpreter assured us if we left the boy he would be dead as soon as we left. We where ordered to leave by HQ, without the boy. Our interpreter quite the next week.

****, that's depressing :/ No wonder people return with PTSD.

@justiful: @justiful: thank you for your service.

That's a bit of a different situation tho. I'm just talking about the subculture of boy slaves. I agree that You should've helped them in that situation. And maybe done something for them. But at the same time I can see see that creating a weakness if that became a SOP.

I think about the older days when snipers would leave a wounded soldier and wait for help to arrive so that he can take out a few more.

The enemies could create an instance that would encourage y'all to help, setting you up and leaving you vulnerable.

I also think about how people here think whipping your kid is abuse. There will be some occasions there that half the pop would agree and the other disagree. You will walk a thin line when stopping what we consider domestic abuse and what their culture sees as normal. If you happened to kill a man in one of those instances, more riots would abrupt. More danger for y'all. So many of those take place and all trust is lost.

Its horrible but I agree that you shouldn't interfere with their domestics situations.

Quite depressing to say the least. But, I'm not surprised in the slightest. Further reassures my stance that USA doesn't want 'peace' or any such thing like that, but rather 'more strength to its own regime'.

As I tell people all the time, Our soldiers always want to do what's right, but orders are orders! the suits on Capital Hill are to blame! They don't have to see it up front, so it's easy for them to make "F" up decisions

Americans where already in afghanistan illegally no need for them to force western values on others.

@alim298: you're the only one talking about doing Nazi shit, the epidemic of pedophile priests in the Catholic Church is well established, as well as the Church's passive complicity in the matter, and I'm Catholic and grew up in Catholic school and have had friends growing up who I found out years later were molested by our priest, so shut the **** up

I never said the U.S loves to do anything in this topic. I'm not sure what you're referring to.

It matters so much because the emancipation of the Afghan people and the introduction of democracy to a people that lived under a terrible tyranny for long were among the top pretenses the Bush administration resorted to in order to justify and garner support for the Afghanistan war. If the military endorsed a policy of turning a blind eye to such atrocities it debunks such pretenses and jolts our memory regarding the debacle that happened more than a decade ago.

@GazaAli: "Yet the U.S can't seem to get enough of it "

If you were referring something else, my bad.

However everything you just said is irrelevant to the situation. This is a culture thing, not a tyranny thing. You are stepping on something something that much of them consider right.Much like some marry many wives. Young wives. Its part of their culture and it's not our business to intervene unless it endangers us.

30% of my paycheck is taxed to support this?

From the CNN article:

"For U.S. service members in Afghanistan, the abuse of children is infuriatingly hard to stop, ..."

If it doesn't fall within the remit of their assigned duties, then they have no business trying to stop it, however offensive they may find it.

Haha. You are pathetic. I pity you.

That wasn't meant to be taken literally; that was lampoon.

How is it irrelevant when it pertains to the core of the Afghanistan war? You can't just gloss over something by haphazardly saying it's irrelevant and hastily moving beyond it; it doesn't work like this if the intention is to have an intelligent debate that honors argumentation.

@GazaAli: the core of the Afghan war has nothing to do with their culture. Maybe we should also require Muslim woman to reveal themselves, or require them to use toilet paper instead of their left hand and water. Make them eat bacon while we're at it. While these are less extreme and slightly religious, it's still equally not our place. They've put a local government in place to deal with it, so it's their responsibility if they decide it's a problem.

Nah me either.

The Kim dynasty of North Korea sends their regards.

This is not to excuse American dogma when it occurs, but rather to point out what is known, internationally, in contrast to your statements.

fucking gold

@dammitdanbo: Don't bother talking to him. He's a known US hater. Not sure why he posts on a US based website other than to bash the US. He has nothing substantive to say.

@LJS9502_basic: you're Probally right, I've noticed some ppl on here will ignore logic just so they can bash US.

I find it funny how some people on here whining are in a country that has active troops in Afghanistan.