The grief-stricken father of a slain Marine lashed out at the U.S. training policies with the Afghan National Security Forces. His son’s death became one of many recent insider attacks leading to high-level meetings between U.S. and Afghan leader to re-evaluate their training methods.
“At the end of the day, what happened is my son trained somebody to murder him,” Greg Buckley Sr. said at the funeral Saturday for Lance Cpl. Gregory T. Buckley, 21, of Oceanside, N.Y., according to a CBS report.
The Afghan recruits “come in, they say, ‘We want to be police officers,’ and we hand them a blue uniform and hand them an AK-47? That’s insane,” the father told CBS as he stood surrounded by family and friends wearing buttons with a picture of his fallen son in uniform.
“If my son died on the battlefield, I would’ve been -- maybe been -- able to accept that, but instead they killed him inside the gym,” said Buckley Sr., according to CBS.
Buckley; Staff Sgt. Scott E. Dickinson, 29, of San Diego, Calif.; and Cpl. Richard A. Rivera Jr., 20 of Ventura, Calif., were shot to death on Aug. 10 while they worked out at a base gym in the southwestern Helmand province. The assailant allegedly was an unvetted 15-year-old “tea boy” who was the personal aide to the local Afghan district police chief, the Washington Post reported.
The grief and anger of Buckley’s father reflected the opinions of most Americans. Numerous recent polls have shown that a majority believe the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting.
While services were held for the young Marine in Long Island, N.Y., Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to curb the growing incidents of “insider attacks” by Afghans wearing uniforms that have killed at least 109 coalition troops since 2007 -- 39 since January, including 25 Americans.
Another Afghan dressed in a police uniform shot and killed a NATO soldier Sunday in southern Afghanistan. It wasn’t immediately known what country the NATO soldier was from. And an Afghan police recruit killed two U.S. Special Forces trainers Aug. 17.
Panetta thanked Karzai for “condemning the attacks and the two “expressed shared concern over this issue,” said George Little, the chief Pentagon spokesman.
To counter the insider threat, Panetta and Karzai discussed measures that have already been put in place or are in the planning stage. The two called for “augmented counter-intelligence measures, even more rigorous vetting of Afghan recruits, and stepped up engagement with village elders, who often play a key role by vouching for Afghan security personnel,” Little said.
Marine Gen. John Allen, the overall Afghan commander and head of the International Security Assistance Force, has also ordered all U.S. troops in Afghanistan to carry loaded weapons with them at all times.
Buckley and the two other slain Marines were members of Kilo Co., 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, which had not taken any casualties before the Aug. 10 incident in the gym. On that same day in Helmand province, three other Special Operations Marines were killed by an Afghan wearing a police uniform in a separate incident.
Capt. Matthew P. Manoukian, 29, of Los Altos Hills, Calif.; Gunnery Sgt. Ryan Jeschke, 31, of Herndon, Va.; and Staff Sgt. Sky R. Mote, 27, of El Dorado, Calif., were shot to death by an Afghan police officer with whom they had just shared a meal.
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As story as old as American intervention. In many ways we did the same in the Republic Of Vietnam. Some of those
we trained turned against us -and betrayed our trust -- Many we trained were loyal---and our Govt. betrayed many --when it
was no longer a political advantage from the Democratic Party leadership position. But the Lady is right and my prayers
are that God in His Grace and Wisdom will keep the Comforter close as she passes through the Valley of the Shadow.
It is pathetic isn't it.
My heart breaks for these guys like it's being ripped out by the roots... and it is. Make no mistake, we've been under attack since Obo's inauguration and while it was getting worse by the week, it became by the day and now it's every headline, or lack thereof, while you must dig and claw to learn just how diabolical these creeps' moves are.against our treasured US of A. God must love the vets that put 'Dishonorable Disclosures' together. If only the bulk of the electorate were so engaged.
I say wipe out the entire bunch of desert rats when one looks at any of our military the wrong way. Wipe out the villages and families of the rats. They have no honor, intelligence, caring or morals. They are a nest of vipers with inbred mental deformities that will never be corrected. They are indoctrinated with hate, kept ignorant, pedophilia, hate of women, torturers, sadist bastards and do not deserve our respect. Toilet paper is worth more then the desert rats.
HAD ENOUGH YET .
The whole damn place isn't worth one of our military personnel. However, as long as there is a closet muslim in the people's house nothing is going to change. Has anyone seen or heard any reports as to what happens to these dirt bags that are killing our troops? What amazes me is the fact that the Brits spent how many decades trying to subdue the place and they never did. Then along came the Russians and they got their head handed to them on a platter. Next up is us. What idiot in the Pentagon ever thought we could conquer this place must be the most arrogant SOB in the world. There was no need to invade. All we had to do was take out the terrorist training camps with missiles and maybe spec ops raids. If there's civilian casualties too bad, but let the people know that this will continue as long as they allow the taliban and the terrorists to use their country. They would have soon gotten rid of them.
He's right.