ARE PEDOPHILES AND RAPISTS THE BEST ALLIES

IN AMERICA'S WAR AGAINST THE HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES OF THE TALIBAN?

In his last phone call home from duty in Southern Afghanistan, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father about what had been disrupting his sleep. The sound of Afghan police officers sexually assaulting young boys on base.

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father recalled his son saying. Yet when he urged his son to tell his superiors, Gregory Buckley Jr replied that he had been instructed to look the other way, "because it's their culture. (New York Times, 2015)

Now many people believe that it is important to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan because of their terrible track record on human rights. In the Taliban's rule over Afghanistan from 1996-2001, they enforced their own brand of austere Wahabbi doctrine: requiring women to wear the head-to-toe burqa, banning music and television, and jailing men for having beards deemed too short.

This sentiment was echoed by Dan Quinn, a former Special Forces captain. “The reason we were here is because we heard the terrible things the Taliban were doing to people, how they were taking away human rights...But we were putting people into power who would do things that were worse than the Taliban did — that was something village elders voiced to me." (New York Times, 2015) Dan Quinn, along with decorated Green Beret Sgt. First Class Charles Martland, was relieved of his command when he beat up a militia leader for keeping a young boy chained to his bed.

Mr. Quinn reports another troubling incident, where one of the militia leaders raped a 14 year old girl. How did the local police chief punish this man? One day in jail and a forced marriage to his victim.

So rampant sexual abuse of children has become a problem among armed Afghan commanders, particularly the ones who dominate the rural landscape. The practice of sexually grooming young boys is called "bacha bazi," literally "boy play," and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to interfere. Even when their Afghan allies are abusing these young boys on base, they are not supposed to intervene, according to interviews and court records. (New York Times, 2015)

This policy has endured as American forces have recruited and organized Afghan militias to help them hold territory against the Taliban. Yet instead of weeding out pedophiles in this process, the American military has been arming them, and in some cases, placing them in command of entire villages - and doing little next to nothing when they start to abuse children. And when American soldiers try to blow the whistle on this behavior, they get punished for not "looking the other way," as in the case of Dan Quinn and Charles Martland.

When this sexual abuse was brought up to the Obama Administration, they commented that this was a "local-enforcement matter." (New York Post, 2015).

Yet the trouble is that many of those we put in charge to enforce the local justice, are the ones committing said crimes. So this raises many troubling questions about America's handling of Afghanistan. Can we truly claim we are there to promote human rights and equality, while aiding and abetting child rapists?

 

RELATED LINKS

Afghan Plan to Expand Militia Raises Abuse Concerns (New York Times, 10-16-15)

Yes, our troops were ordered to ignore Afghan pedophiles (New York Post, 9-25-15)

U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies (New York Times, 9-20-15)