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'British soldiers claim Afghan colleagues take drugs and 'touch up the guys they are working with'
soldiers have claimed their Afghan colleagues regularly take drugs and sometimes 'touch up the guys they were working with'.
The soldiers made the comments as they raised concerns over the Afghan forces while speaking about the future of the country and whether the NATO mission was a success.
The revelations come as Stanley McChrystal, former US commander General, warned Afghanistan could slip back into civil war if it does not continue to receive support from the West following the withdrawal of most international troops this year.
Speaking to the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme, one of the unidentified soldiers, while talking about drug taking by Afghan soldiers, said: 'The men out there basically on a Thursday enjoy each other's company, it tends to be a Thursday Friday, and sometimes they would try, they would basically touch up the guys that they were working with and some things like that, especially if they were high, which for some unfortunately was quite a lot.'
Another soldier, also talking about drug taking among the Afghan forces, said: 'You walk into their lines and you can smell it, you can smell they have been smoking weed and stuff like that.
a separate report, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'I don't think the Taliban have the strength to come in and take over Afghanistan and, clearly, I think the greatest danger is it would break out into violence, either in direct civil war or maybe multi-party fighting.
'But that is the unnecessary outcome, in my view. There is enough capacity in that country, and certainly enough ties that bind, to avoid that. But I think that would be a worst-case possibility.'
Gen McChrystal, who was the architect of the US troop 'surge' in 2009 but later resigned after critical comments he made about the Obama administration were published by Rolling Stone magazine, said the Afghans needed reassurance that help would be there if it was required.
'I think they do need partners as they go forward though, so I hope that a security arrangement is reached where they get some levels of support from people who have been their allies over the last decade and a half,' he said.
'What you really want is a consistency of partnership and that is to maintain in the minds of the Afghan people that we are reliable long-term partners and that is going to take enough people to do certain tasks, to provide some logistic support, to provide advice, and also to be around as a representation that they are not alone.'
Gen McChrystal also expressed concern about the use by the Americans of unmanned drones to target leading Taliban figures.
While he acknowledged that they could be a highly effective weapon, he said it was important to consider their impact on the local population.
Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...colleagues-drugs-touch-guys-working-with.html
soldiers have claimed their Afghan colleagues regularly take drugs and sometimes 'touch up the guys they were working with'.
The soldiers made the comments as they raised concerns over the Afghan forces while speaking about the future of the country and whether the NATO mission was a success.
The revelations come as Stanley McChrystal, former US commander General, warned Afghanistan could slip back into civil war if it does not continue to receive support from the West following the withdrawal of most international troops this year.
Speaking to the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme, one of the unidentified soldiers, while talking about drug taking by Afghan soldiers, said: 'The men out there basically on a Thursday enjoy each other's company, it tends to be a Thursday Friday, and sometimes they would try, they would basically touch up the guys that they were working with and some things like that, especially if they were high, which for some unfortunately was quite a lot.'
Another soldier, also talking about drug taking among the Afghan forces, said: 'You walk into their lines and you can smell it, you can smell they have been smoking weed and stuff like that.
a separate report, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'I don't think the Taliban have the strength to come in and take over Afghanistan and, clearly, I think the greatest danger is it would break out into violence, either in direct civil war or maybe multi-party fighting.
'But that is the unnecessary outcome, in my view. There is enough capacity in that country, and certainly enough ties that bind, to avoid that. But I think that would be a worst-case possibility.'
Gen McChrystal, who was the architect of the US troop 'surge' in 2009 but later resigned after critical comments he made about the Obama administration were published by Rolling Stone magazine, said the Afghans needed reassurance that help would be there if it was required.
'I think they do need partners as they go forward though, so I hope that a security arrangement is reached where they get some levels of support from people who have been their allies over the last decade and a half,' he said.
'What you really want is a consistency of partnership and that is to maintain in the minds of the Afghan people that we are reliable long-term partners and that is going to take enough people to do certain tasks, to provide some logistic support, to provide advice, and also to be around as a representation that they are not alone.'
Gen McChrystal also expressed concern about the use by the Americans of unmanned drones to target leading Taliban figures.
While he acknowledged that they could be a highly effective weapon, he said it was important to consider their impact on the local population.
Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...colleagues-drugs-touch-guys-working-with.html