Is this part of our mission in Afghanistan -- to spread the message of the Christian faith among Afghanistan's predominantly Muslim population?
Military chaplains stationed in the US air base at Bagram were also filmed with bibles printed in the country's main Pashto and Dari languages.
In one recorded sermon, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, is seen telling soldiers that as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him".
"The special forces guys - they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down," he says.
http://english.aljazeera.net/...
In our vaguely defined mission in Afghanistan, surely this cannot be part of the mission.
Such actions of deliberate provocation cannot help the larger mission. Jesus knocking at your door with bayonet in hand...
It must surely offend the Afghanis, it surely cannot add to the safety of our military there.
Why are these religious provocateurs allowed to operate in such a way.
Lt.-Col. Hensley should be summarily court martialled and removed from the military.
This is not the first time these religious provocateurs have jeopardized U.S. military missions in Islamic nations. In May's Harper's Magazine, Jeff Sharlet discloses that in Iraq in spring of 2004:
Early that morning, a unit from the 109th National Guard Infantry dropped off their morning chow. With it came a holiday special–a video of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and a chaplain to sing the film’s praises, a gory cinematic sermon for an Easter at war. Humphrey ducked into the chow room to check it out. "It was the part where they’re killing Jesus, which is, I guess, pretty much the whole movie. Kind of turned my stomach." He decided he’d rather burn trash.
He was returning from his first run to the garbage pit when the 109th came barreling back. Their five-ton–a supersized armored pickup–was rolling on rims, its tires flapping and spewing greasy black flames. "Came in on two wheels," remembers one of Humphrey’s men, a machine gunner. On the ground behind it and in retreat before a furious crowd were more men from the 109th, laying down fire with their M-4s. Humphrey raced toward the five-ton as his roof shooters opened up, their big guns thumping above him. Later, when he climbed into the vehicle, the stink was overwhelming: of iron and gunpowder, blood and bullet casings. He reached down to grab a rifle, and his hand came up wet with brain.
.... The rest of that Easter was spent under siege. Insurgents held off Bravo Company, which was called in to rescue the men in the compound. Ammunition ran low. A helicopter tried to drop more but missed. As dusk fell, the men prepared four Bradley Fighting Vehicles for a "run and gun" to draw fire away from the compound. Humphrey headed down from the roof to get a briefing. He found his lieutenant, John D. DeGiulio, with a couple of sergeants. They were snickering like schoolboys. They had commissioned the Special Forces interpreter, an Iraqi from Texas, to paint a legend across their Bradley’s armor, in giant red Arabic script.
"What’s it mean?" asked Humphrey.
"Jesus killed Mohammed," one of the men told him. The soldiers guffawed. JESUS KILLED MOHAMMED was about to cruise into the Iraqi night.
.... "Jesus kill Mohammed!" chanted the interpreter. "Jesus kill Mohammed!"
http://killingthebuddha.com/...
Sergeant Jeffery Humphrey had been in Samarra for a month. Until that day the city had been quiet.
The Bradley vehicle seemed to draw fire from every doorway.
According to Sharlet:
Humphrey was stunned. He’d been blown off a tower in Kosovo and seen action in the drug war, but he’d never witnessed a maneuver so fundamentally stupid.
Note: for another post with video look here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...