U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kody King engages enemy positions with an M2HB .50-caliber machine gun during Operation Bullseye in Kajaki in Afghanistan's Helmand province, Feb. 27, 2013. King, a machine gunner, is assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 7. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Kowshon Ye
The Future of Special Forces in Afghanistan -- Kevin Drum. Mother Jones
Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced that he was barring U.S. troops from Wardak province after reports that U.S. Special Forces had tortured and murdered innocent people. Among other things Karzai said that nine villagers had been abducted from their homes and a young man was found decapitated and with his fingers sliced off. Today, the LA Times reports that Karzai was probably mistaken:
The account of the young man's death was wrong, U.S. and local Afghan officials say.
He was snared by armed men, not U.S. forces or their Afghan allies, according to Afghan law enforcement officials. In police photos of the body, he has one finger chopped off and a gash on one side of his neck, but he wasn't beheaded.
Crucially, say Afghan officials who investigated the slaying, the bearded veterinary student known as Nasratullah was a Taliban facilitator whose brother is serving time for planting so-called sticky bombs — explosives that attach with magnets. They believe that Nasratullah was killed in a power struggle between the Taliban and another Islamist faction in insurgent-ridden Wardak province, and that tribal elders here, perhaps coerced by militants, blamed Americans to fuel an outcry against U.S. troops.
Read more ....
My Comment: I usually am in disagreement with "Mother Jones", but on this issue (check the following paragraph) they are probably right ....
.... we should probably expect a lot more fireworks over the next 24 months as we draw down troops in Afghanistan. It's likely to get pretty ugly.
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