US Units Building ‘Safe Rooms’ to Avoid Attacks From Afghan Forces

Troops Openly Planning for 'Another Quran Burning Incident'

The NATO occupation of Afghanistan continues to get more complicated, and US troops facing the growing possibility of “green-on-blue” attacks are now building fortified safe rooms to hide in just in case such attacks break out on Afghan bases they happen to be on.

Army Command Sgt. Maj. William Johnson openly confirmed the safe rooms, saying that it was important to plan for “another Quran burning incident” and for US troops to have places to hide in case violence breaks out on a massive scale against them.

“It’s something that we’ve always thought about,” Johnson added. 12 US troops have been killed this month alone in “green-on-blue” attacks, and once rare occurrences are now becoming a several time a week reality.

Interestingly, the troops are calling these safe rooms “Alamos,” named after the Alamo Mission in Texas, which during the Texas Revolution was sieged by Mexican forces. As soldiers like Johnson talk about Alamoing “until reinforcements arrive” it is noteworthy that the Alamo was a huge military defeat for the Texas forces, and that virtually everyone within was killed.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.