Comments on: “The Final Straw?” Slaying of Kandahar Police Chief Might Be Sympton of Intractable Problem

By: IntelTrooper

IntelTrooper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:05:20 +0000

Crickets from the famous ISAF IO machine? Shocking!

And it is not entirely impossible that these guys (or at least some of them) are both ANA and private security guards. Lots of ANA go home for “leave” and end up staying months on end, in the mean time taking temporary jobs as local guards or helping the family on the fields.

By: BruceR

BruceR — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:13:21 +0000

I think your Khost Protection Force analogy is the current most-likely. Note the comment by the Canadians: “the regional deputy has been replaced” as a result of this, so its fairly clear now this was a non-ANSF paramilitary organized on a regional level, ie, not necessarily Kandaharis. There’s a lot of irregular organizations like that out there doing low-level security tasks, guarding the highways, guarding the SOF bases, guarding the Afghans, and the like. Suggestions they were US-trained are almost certainly wrong… someone was paying for them, though, and all this money always ends up coming from the West’s bankroll through some chain of hands.

In the Western movie analogy, it’s the Clantons coming into town and overruling the Earps. Except this time the Earps lost. Blood feud? Oh, yeah, but it’s not like they were short of those before in Kandahar, either.

By: Fnord

Fnord — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:29:24 +0000

Face-palm. Anyone care to give an estimate how bad this is? Will it result in bloodfeud, etc? On a speculative guess, you dont get to be police chief in Kandahar without some good connections. Anyone know how this may play out?

By: Joel Hafvenstein

Joel Hafvenstein — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:48:56 +0000

I’ve got friends in Kdh who are convinced it was American soldiers who killed the police chief, on the grounds (as you say) that they heard that story first, and any subsequent explanations are the cover-up.

By: Old Blue

Old Blue — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:16:58 +0000

Greg Julian needs to get all over this and find out exactly what happened and start doing what the Americans said that their info strategy was going to be: break the truth first; good, bad or ugly. His minimalist reports seem almost dismissive.

Even if, especially if, this did not involve coalition forces, if there are men in custody, Coalition custody, then the truth is known by Coalition members and Julian should have access to it. This is not something that should be left to a few tweets and the grapevine. For each individual, perception is reality… and there are a lot of realities being formed right now.

By: Christian B

Christian B — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:22:30 +0000

Totally agree that perceptions are what count here. And the damage has been done on that front. Doesn’t really matter what actually happened. I can just imagine the bazaar chit-chat going on right now.