Heads should roll on this horrendous issue

[Anonymous]

I wonder who the orders came from that allowed for this to be ignored and whether there will be accountability.

In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”

Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html

[Anonymous]

it is sickening. I don't know how we can best handle issues like these - including genital mutilation of young girls, child brides, etc. We're stuck - we need the allies, disgusting practices are culturally ingrained, we have little leverage to say this is wrong stop doing it. But at the same time - THIS IS WRONG STOP DOING IT. And we shouldn't look the other way. so freaking sad.

[Anonymous]

I couldn't live with myself if i didn't intervene. America has lost its moral high ground.

[Anonymous]

I just read the article in the NYT. There are some abhorrent differences from our culture to some other cultures.

Afghan military systematically sexually abusing boys and our army is supposed to keep quiet! Oh god-do we let these people in the US? Self-immolation,suicide bombing.

[Anonymous]

that these men are being dishonorably discharged is simply revolting - speaks volumes about our President and how he values cultural sensitivities over child rape.

I would hire one of these "dishonorable" men in a heartbeat, had I a company in which to place them.

[Anonymous]

How about they promise not to attack us or harbor terrorists, and we leave thei awful country with its awful customs? Would that work?

[Anonymous]

The worst thing is that this child rape and practice of raping boys actually declined under the Taliban control. When the US military came back and the Taliban declined the Afghan militia allies started up this practice again.

Another consequence how US military intervention ruins the lives of the locals there. No wonder the villagers there hate the US militaries and see them just as repugnant as the Afghan militias.

Imagine how desperate you must be as a mother when pregnant to try to seek refuge to save your child (both son or daughter) from rape from these animals.

[Anonymous]

We can't change them overnight.
We can't change the whole world overnight.

[Anonymous]

No. But we should not punish the few men that were brave enough to speak out against it. Why are we discharging honorable men that saved a little boy from rape in the name of working with our "allies?" The boy was chained to a bed. That is a little more than the run of the mill sexual abuse.

[Anonymous]

if you don't say anything you're complicit in this evil. Shame on those in high positions that condoned this in the military and punished the soldiers that actually spoke up.

[Anonymous]

basically the obama administration is covering up sex crimes against children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We can't change them overnight.
We can't change the whole world overnight.

No..but we went in and fed it up even more. So now there is some responsibility for it. Blame it also on Bush and Cheney. Makes Jeb's "my brother made it more safe" sound even more pathetic.

[Anonymous]

OK, I can accept, even if I disagree with the practice, that we do not seek out and prosecute acts that are legal under Afghanistan's laws committed by Afghan citizens on private property, etc. But it is completely despicable - and I do not see that rationale for why we are allowing child abuse on American bases. At the least we could draw the line there, and thereby also tangibly show our condemnation of those acts.

The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.

[Anonymous]

Female cadets were routinely assaulted and raped at places like the Air Force Academy, yet we want to pretend that our military is so morally sound?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:that these men are being dishonorably discharged is simply revolting - speaks volumes about our President and how he values cultural sensitivities over child rape.

I would hire one of these "dishonorable" men in a heartbeat, had I a company in which to place them.

Oh can the crap about Obama's cultural sensitivity. We are allies with bad people, because of our freak-out over 9/11. We have justified any number of human rights violations based on it. That's what this is. Nothing cultural, it's all about dealing with scum to further our goals.