Canada Ping! Please FReepmail me to get on or off this Canada ping list.
Posted on 03/05/2006 2:55:28 PM PST by pyx
Greene was chatting with dozens of elders near Gumbad yesterday when an Afghan villager pulled an axe with a 60-cm handle from inside his clothing.
The villager, in his 20s, held the axe high over the Canadian soldier's head and yelled "Allah Akbar" -- God is Great -- the signature call of an Islamist suicide attacker.
The man fulfilled his destiny. He delivered his nearly lethal blow and then died where he stood, his body riddled with bullets from Capt. Kevin Schamuhn and two of his fellow soldiers.
Schamuhn was sure Greene, of Vancouver, was dead -- "because of the force with which the axe hit his head. "Fortunately, that was not the case."
The notion the act was of a lone maniac quickly disappeared.
While villagers scattered in all directions, enemy small-arms fire broke out from across the river. Canadians and their Afghan allies returned fire. Then, another man moved toward coalition forces and tossed a hand grenade.
The Afghans and Canadians returned fire again as the grenade exploded harmlessly. Schamuhn believes the man was hit but the grenade attacker scurried away in the mayhem.
SERIOUS CONDITION
As things calmed down, a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter whisked Greene away to a Canadian hospital at Kandahar Airfield. He remains there in serious condition, awaiting a plane ride to the U.S. combat hospital at Landsruehl, Germany, and home.
The platoon from Company A of the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry brigade was making one of a series of stops in small villages from their forward operating base 70 km north of Kandahar.
Villagers had welcomed them with blankets and bread and meat. The meeting with local leaders -- the key to getting anything done in rural areas -- was off to a good start when the attacker struck, Schamuhn said.
The first hint of trouble could only be seen in the light of hindsight, he said.
"About two or three minutes prior to the incident, all the children that were present were escorted away, about 20 to 30 metres away," Schamuhn recalled.
"But none of us picked up on this, there was no weird feeling, no gut feeling that something was about to go down."
Schamuhn has grown to trust villagers through dozens of encounters. He and Greene had removed their helmets and set down their arms in a sign of respect and trust.
"I'm sure I've shaken hands with some people who have plotted against us," he said. "You can't tell."
Schamuhn said he had started to believe the oft-repeated Afghan contention that foreigners are causing all the trouble. He doesn't believe it now. ....[End of Exerpt]
What other religion has a "signature call" for its suicide attackers?
We need to trust. We need to take chances. He who dares, wins.
Good point..
Level the village.
flatten it.....they all knew, they pulled their kids back!
He's still alive.
I'm sorry .. a soldier NEVER takes off his helmet on the battlefield .. NEVER.
I've noticed our guys stay in full armour - all the time.
Canada Ping! Please FReepmail me to get on or off this Canada ping list.
That'd be a start.
So very sad that they didn't see this one coming. Some here are insisting we must "trust." I think we must only "trust" that we shouldn't turn our backs on people we don't know. First, get a reason to trust, let them earn it.
Please use original titles.
A similar (but not identical) thread here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1590018/posts
You break it, you bought it.
Did Lt. Greene die? He was in critical condition last I heard.
"We need to trust. We need to take chances. He who dares, wins."
I trust in God... everyone else can keep their hands where I can see them.
This was a severe violation of trust and hospitality. It is an almost universal custom among tribal peoples that hospitality is one of the highest virtues and that guests are sacred. Better to kill one of your own family than a guest under your roof who has broken bread with you.
In the Bible story, this is why Lot offers to give his own daughters to the mob of Sodomites rather than send out the angels disguised as young men, because terrible as it would be to prostitute a daughter, it was better than betraying invited guests.
This has always been the case with Arabs and other tribal Muslims. This is really unbelievable. And, as the story suggests, the tribal elders apparently agreed to do this.
When you read about breach of hospitality that Cesare Borgia committed at Sinagaglia, even Machiavelli finds it an evil act. And when Machiavelli thinks of evil tyrants, again it is famous breaches of hospitality that he thinks of first.
Yes, hospitality is sometimes breached in traditional societies, but it is so evil that it is remembered for hundreds of years. This whole tribe has disgraced itself by doing this. I agree that the Canadians did right to trust their hosts. They could not do otherwise.
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