Wikileaks does it again and publishes an Afghan war diary. With a mind-blowing 75.000 out of 91.000 reports published this could be one of the biggest leaks... well, ever? Mainstream media is on it. It apparently proves there have been quite a few cover ups and that both sides did some real bad things.
I, as a Dutchman, am waiting for the first proof that the Dutch covered up something bad, but nothing so far. The site mentions it's mostly USA's documentation and that the European forces are mentioned in them, but they don't have reports from the European nations directly. I'm still hoping that somehow we kept our hands more or less clean, or that at least nothing was hidden from the public and that we can keep confident that our military behaves as properly as possible. If we have another Srebrenica support for the military would drop so low that any politician uttering anything about sending our soldiers out on another foreign mission will commit political suicide. Not to mention the stain on the profession of soldiers, who are often also doing good things that never get mentioned.
Note that I do not support us (the Dutch) being in Afghanistan, I believe we shouldn't be the ones cleaning up the (insolvable?) mess, but while they're there, from what I can see is that we're at least trying to make something out of a hopeless situation and sounds coming from the local Afghan populace is that the Dutch are popular there as far as support for the military presence goes. Sadly, the Afghan military is a joke that won't be able to take over for years, if not decades to come. Soldiers report they betray their own to the Taliban constantly for some cash and almost all are addicted to opiates. I think NATO will be stuck there for a looong time. It dug a pit for itself it can't climb out of much like Iraq.
This 2008 British documentary describes the problem of the Afghan soldiers betraying their own (4:50):
http://www.vbs.tv/nl-nl/watch/vbs-news/i...tan-1-of-2
This part shows them getting stoned:
http://www.vbs.tv/nl-nl/watch/vbs-news/i...tan-2-of-2
I, as a Dutchman, am waiting for the first proof that the Dutch covered up something bad, but nothing so far. The site mentions it's mostly USA's documentation and that the European forces are mentioned in them, but they don't have reports from the European nations directly. I'm still hoping that somehow we kept our hands more or less clean, or that at least nothing was hidden from the public and that we can keep confident that our military behaves as properly as possible. If we have another Srebrenica support for the military would drop so low that any politician uttering anything about sending our soldiers out on another foreign mission will commit political suicide. Not to mention the stain on the profession of soldiers, who are often also doing good things that never get mentioned.
Note that I do not support us (the Dutch) being in Afghanistan, I believe we shouldn't be the ones cleaning up the (insolvable?) mess, but while they're there, from what I can see is that we're at least trying to make something out of a hopeless situation and sounds coming from the local Afghan populace is that the Dutch are popular there as far as support for the military presence goes. Sadly, the Afghan military is a joke that won't be able to take over for years, if not decades to come. Soldiers report they betray their own to the Taliban constantly for some cash and almost all are addicted to opiates. I think NATO will be stuck there for a looong time. It dug a pit for itself it can't climb out of much like Iraq.
This 2008 British documentary describes the problem of the Afghan soldiers betraying their own (4:50):
http://www.vbs.tv/nl-nl/watch/vbs-news/i...tan-1-of-2
This part shows them getting stoned:
http://www.vbs.tv/nl-nl/watch/vbs-news/i...tan-2-of-2
Former www.diablo2.com webmaster.
When in deadly danger,
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.
When in deadly danger,
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.