As I have said many times in the context of many similar incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is no reliable way to distinguish a peaceful Muslim from a jihadist. This is yet more fruit of the unwillingness to make even a cursory attempt to take that fact into account.
And every few weeks (the last time was October 29), I find the paragraph above in the archives and post it again.
“Rogue Afghan soldier shoots three Australians, two Afghans,” by Dylan Welch for the Sydney Morning Herald, November 9 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
A rogue Afghan soldier who opened fire on Australian and Afghan troops with a grenade launcher and automatic rifle, wounding five – including three Diggers – is on the run after fleeing after the attack.
Defence Force chief General David Hurley announced an Australian operation involving unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) had been launched to hunt down the soldier, who escaped in a vehicle after the shooting.
The attack is the second by an Afghan soldier on Australians in less than two weeks, and the third this year.
But Prime Minister Julia Gillard said this morning that Australians would continue to train Afghan National Army soldiers, despite the damage to relations.
“These attacks corrode trust,” she said in Melbourne. “I’m very conscious that this attack, coming so soon after the dreadful attacks of October 29, will work to cause Australians to question our mission in Afghanistan and the trust we have in Afghan National Army soldiers.”…
Let’s hope so!
The executive director for the Australia Defence Association, Neil James, cautioned against drawing larger strategic trends from the latest incident – particularly suggestions that Australia should now withdraw from Afghanistan.
“I’m not sure this shows that we should withdraw – this is actually part of our withdrawal plan,” he told this website.
“I think what a lot of people aren’t grasping [is that] at the end of the day this is an Afghan civil war, the Afghans have to take over from the international forces.
“The only way that can occur is if they’re brought up to a certain standard, and the only way they can do that is if they’re trained and mentored.
“Everyone’s looking for the magic bullet here and there isn’t one. You can mitigate against this risk, but you can’t completely eliminate it. You have to do this task.”
He also said this incident should not lead to an outpouring of anger against the Afghan forces, who were doing a good job under difficult conditions.
“The majority of the Afghans that we’re training are just as angry and embarrassed about this as the Australians are,” he said.
“As one Afghan veteran said to me recently, people should take comfort from how infrequently these things happen.”…
Yeah, that is so comforting!