[Reader-list] SAS soldier talks about training Afghan soldiers

[Menso Heus]

On Tue, Sep 25, 2001 at 02:55:51PM +0200, Boud Roukema wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Sep 2001, Menso Heus wrote:
> 
> > SAS soldier speaks up on training the Afghans: apparently these guys 
> ...
> > The lucky ones died instantly. The unlucky ones were chopped to 
> > pieces in the aftermath. In the Hindu Kush, don't expect to 
> > appeal to the Geneva convention."
> 
> Well, it could be true (I don't see why Afghans should be less
> competent at killing than people in other societies), but the
> conclusion is ambiguous, and risks leading to absurd implications!

The way I take the line about the Geneva convention is the soldiers
view (could be any soldier) saying "This is all nice, all these 
conventions, but when you're actually out there, don't think anybody
actually cares about them."

Last night I zapped across Turner Classics Movie Channel (tv) where
I just happened to hear a quote that I think is appropriate. It was 
an old war movie and one soldier was explaining to, what seemed to 
be a prisoner,  about the Geneva convention. 

Prisoner: "I don't understand this convention thing"
Soldier: "It is sort of a gentleman agreement"
Prisoner shrugs, then: "If we'd all be gentlemen there'd be no war." 


Menso 

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyway, the :// part is an 'emoticon' representing a man with a strip 
of sticky tape across his mouth.   -R. Douglas, alt.sysadmin.recovery
---------------------------------------------------------------------