Gen. Dempsey: ‘Insider Attacks’ Pose Serious Threat to War

US Soldiers Ordered Not to 'Interact' With Afghan Forces as Attacks Grow

With four more US soldiers killed today in yet another “green-on-blue” attack, Gen. Martin Dempsey issued unusually blunt statements against the Afghan government, accusing them of not taking the issue seriously enough.

“Something has to change,” Dempsey insisted, saying that the continued attacks are posing a “very serious threat” to the NATO occupation forces’ goal in the now 11-year-old war.

For months the US and NATO had been downplaying the problem too, saying that they were already addressing it. Now, Dempsey admits, “We can’t just convince ourselves that we just have to work harder to get through it.”

Already US forces had been ordered armed at all times when on Afghan bases, something that previously was reserved for military police. Then NATO scrapped the training mission, likely for months, to “rescreen” Afghan recruits.

Now, US forces are being ordered not to interact with Afghan forces in any way for the next 24 hours, with indications that this could well be expanded further. As the Afghan forces get more and more alienated from the occupation forces, this tension seems like it will continue to grow.

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.