It’s Sunday, March 20th, and we're dealing with a potential political crisis here. For some reason, Germany's Der Spiegel decided to refresh everyone's memory about an atrocity some US soldiers committed down in Kandahar in 2009-2010. Five soldiers run amok, killing three Afghan civilians for no reason other than they were hopped up on drugs and they thought it would be fun to kill unarmed, innocent civilians. The story made a big news splash when it first broke; the lesser offenders are already convicted and doing stockade time, and the ringleaders haven't been tried yet, but could face the death penalty. As we translate the article here locally (thanks to Google translate), it appears to be written from the viewpoint of one of the spineless lesser trolls, who allegedly went along with the crowd and stayed silent because he was afraid of the ringleaders’ retaliation.
Rumor has it that the Germans got new pictures from the event, purportedly showing the soldiers with heads of the victims; such photos were not evident in the advance copy we got here. But they decided to re-publicize the episode this weekend ... the day before Nowruz, the Afghan New Year, when there will be large assemblages of people in all the major cities, Kabul among them. Good timing, Fritz. Thanks, incite a riot for us right before the big holiday. Are you sure you're an ally? Or is this your way of swaying public opinion to induce your government to withdraw your troops early from the theater.
The consensus here in the office last week, even before this story broke, was that it would be a bad idea to move on roads between bases on Monday, just because of the potential for something bad to happen with all the crowds. Der Spiegel just complicated things.
There is one bright side to this. In looking over the article and helping the person assigned to translate it, I’m able to understand substantial chunks of text, so it appears my knowledge of German hasn’t totally withered away.
On another topic … world news or, as Nino Greasemanelli calls it, “Topicality.” I see we’ve started whacking Moammar’s boys … or at least his air defense grid. ‘Bout damn time, I’d say. I (gasp!!) agree with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe that we’re at least a week behind the power curve; the forces of the man St. Ronald described as the “Mad Dog of the Middle East” are going to wreak havoc among the rebels, and many thousands of lives will be needlessly lost because we dithered while pro-government forces coalesced and began pushing east toward Benghazi. I attribute a lot of the delays to the diplomatic process. The striped-pants-and-top-hat set had to wait HOW LONG before they got their plush meeting spaces in Paris? Don’t these people know about video tele-conferences? Hell, my wife and I can set up a Skype date in nothing flat, don’t the lives of innocents add any sense of urgency?
But (another gasp) I’m proud of the French. According to some reports I’ve read, they had their aircraft swooping in for an alpha strike before the diplomats even finished their first pre-conference cocktail party.
I also note with amusement the name of this operation. Must have been some PowerPoint Rangers in the Pentagon who came up with Operation Odyssey Dawn. My first thought was that it sounds like a name for a stripper. “And now, gentlemen, on center stage, the pole-dancing sensation of the city, Miss Odyssey Dawn!”
And on that note, my friends, I bid you adieu. Until next time!
Ain't it somethin' when it's the French leading the fight.
ReplyDelete