Afghanistan private security – 2005

5 Responses to Afghanistan private security – 2005

1. Fred Stiening says:

   June 13, 2016 at 7:56 pm

   The man that is profiled for about half of this video is a former alleged Green Beret named Jack Idema
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Idema

   He left Afghanistan in 2007 and died from AIDS in 2012 in Mexico. He had quite a history of being a con man

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2. Fred Stiening says:

   June 13, 2016 at 10:34 pm

   Just coincidentally, John Batchelor had a segment this weekend about the situation in Afghanistan in 2006

   https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-john-batchelor-show/id589864479?mt=2&i=370568551

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   • Fred Stiening says:

     June 13, 2016 at 11:38 pm

     The officer John talked with still doesn’t understand (and the military more generally) that our “allies” are only pretending to be on our side. He tells one story of how the Afghan National Army “froze” ahead of them, trapping them in a kill zone with no way out. They froze because they were leading the US into the trap.

     Later, he describes that the enemy commander knows in extreme detail every tactic the US troops have been trained to use in a firefight. Well of course they do – we trained them. Either directly in Afghanistan or our military “allies” in Pakistan. He reinforces with another story how Pakistan was directly supporting the fight against his troops – firing artillery over the border at them, knowing they were not allowed to fire back. Note this was during the Bush Era.

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     • CC1s121LrBGT says:

       June 14, 2016 at 9:46 am

       Burning down the farmer’s fields in Afghanistan produced the same result as burning down the farmer’s fields in Vietnam. Go figure. Who could have known?

       http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/world/asia/16drugs.html?_r=0

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       • Fred Stiening says:

         June 14, 2016 at 3:38 pm

         I think this makes John McCain responsible for Orlando.

         who could have guessed that military occupation by the United States and indiscriminate killing of civilians in a weak country would result in soldiers we trained to “defend Democracy” would try to kill us?

         Here is a simple way to understand the Middle East. Everyone there hates Israel. They believe the United States is controlled by Israel. When we train a Muslim to kill a Muslim, they view it that Jews are behind it all. As much as Sunis and Shia hate each other, they aren’t going to kill each other. So they defect, intentially miss, lead the US troops into traps, blow up suicide bombs. Think of Red Storm Rising except we are the bad guys.

         Vietnam supposedly wants to be our friend now. There is the possibility of gas or oil in the South China Sea. Thank God Henry Kissinger is still alive. Bechtel will be glad to build new bases and Goldman Sachs will loan Vietnam the money.

         http://www.cfr.org/global/global-conflict-tracker/p32137#!/conflict/territorial-disputes-in-the-south-china-sea

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