http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0326/p06s01-woeu.html

Chechen and the other Caucasian languages (Azeri is not one, there seems to be some confusion on this point) are not even remotely related to Russian (nor to Arabic or Pashto or Dari/Farsi/Tajik). As you say Josh, “even [being] a fluent Russian speaker” not only wouldn’t help you distinguish any of these languages from one another, it’s no more relevant than being a fluent English or Chinese or Swahili speaker unless you mean to say “being a Russian who’s lived in close proximity to one or two of these languages and could recognize them with some accuracy without being able to speak them.”

Back to the thread, I don’t get the logic of a person’s accent helping distinguish them by nationality when they’re dead.

I couldn’t help that one, it’s kind of been said already but I couldn’t pass that up.

But yeah, the point here that Josh and others are actually making is that “identifying a Chechen” by their language over the radio would require actually knowing Chechen. Out of a field of fifteen or twenty other unidentified languages, picking Chechen out of a crowd correctly is about as likely as me being able to identify a Navajo by listening to phone conversations in Navajo, Cherokee, Apache, Yiddish, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Swahili, Tagalog, and say, Nogai.

And as far as bodies go, claiming that Chechens have physical traits that make them easily distinguishable–to a people who have no historical contact with them–is kind of like saying, I don’t know, yeah that your average Afghan could tell the difference between a Guatamalan, a Mexican, a Venuzualan and a Peruvian Indian just by looking at them.

I find the whole “ghost Chechens” thing pretty fascinating. The larger point I think we’re all trying to make is just what Ian said–”prove me wrong” isn’t really very useful for anything. The more interesting discussion here is probably the one that’s been brought up a few times but then overshadowed–what does it mean that people seem to want there to be Chechens in Afghanistan?

Steering the discussion back to why this rumor of massive Chechen involvement in Af/Pak is so damn sexy to some people might be a more fruitful avenue.

Afghan intel dude hears Russian on the radio=scary Chechen superfighters. And yes, C hally, the dead body of a Chechen (preferably with a passport to match) would be proof enough to dispel the doubt. That’s how the evidence-based world works.

That being said, the entire point of this story is that people there are disputing the evidence of Chechen fighters in Afghanistan (and it’s important to note that I am referring specifically to Afghanistan). Simply insisting there are all these bodies doesn’t really constitute a counterargument, especially based upon weird reasoning like Afghans can tell Chechens apart from Russians or Turks like a Southerner can tell a Yank. It doesn’t work like that.

I also do enjoy the condescension. Now the standard is, actually traveling to the FOBs constitutes “armchair pontifications.” I suppose only the CPLs manning OP4 can ever discuss things? Right.

You’re missing the point.
First of all, how are you telling a dead Canadian from a dead American? Secondly and more to the point, how’s an Afghani ?
Seriously, did you not notice this was already addressed in the post you are replying to ?

1. Actually, there are quite a number of arabs who could pass as being from the Caucus, google search Circassians, those are the descedents of people from the Causcus who live in Arab countries. I would be REAL curious how an Afghan could tell the difference between a dead Afghan Pashtun and a Pakistani one.

2. Pray tell, could you automatically know the difference between a French accent from Montreal, and a French Accent from Nice? How about a Spanish speaker from Mexico and from Chile? But an Afghan automatically knows the difference between Chechen and Azeri?

3. Not everybody from Canada sounds like the cast of Strange Brew, and it is not automatic that you would know somebody is from Canada by their accent.

Fail

Gentlemen, you are experts on the Turkics. I wonder if you could comment on this article from the Los Angeles Times. (I’m sorry if this is too of topic.). Thank you indeed.

Turks increasingly turn to Islamic extremism
Al Qaeda’s reliance on Arabs is altering as recruits from Turkey and Turkic-speaking areas of Central Asia form a recent wave of trainees, experts say.
By Sebastian Rotella
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-turk-terror28-2009jun28,0,2926336.story