U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies

From:  NY Times 

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN   SEPT. 20, 2015

COMMENT - Tolerating the abuse of children cannot be tolerated.  We are there aiding the perpetrators and that must stop.  

The failure to protect children will impact our own culture.  This is taking place at the same time Europe is being invaded by a violent force made up of Jihadists moving under cover of  humanitarian concerns.  Europe needs to look at the pattern which is now clear and so do we.  - Ed.

 

KABUL, Afghanistan — In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”

Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.  MORE