Quote Originally Posted by rtodhner View Post
While many of these "sexual abuse" and "child molestation" incidents meet the criteria to be defined as sex crimes in the United States (and many other parts of the world), they may or may not in Afghanistan and other nations/cultures in the region. The fact is that many of the "laws" we have in the United States are actually legalized moral opinions. We need to tread cautiously when upholding the "law" because it may turn out that we're only upholding a cultural opinion/norm not shared by the "law breaker."
I'd tell you that every where I went, which covered from Helmand east and Abad south, the locals all denied that there was a pederast in their village, the terp and ANA indentified at least one, and based on the evidence (painted boys, etc.) they were correct more often than not. Coupled with the miracle of ITAS and other night vision, I can tell you it happens with 100% surety.

The locals deny this because of pride and machismo. IOT get involved, we would need to be much more connected to that particular tribe, and know the actual situation. In my experience, there is no way that will ever happen, the tribal mindset is simply too insular.

To heavy-handidly try to enforce the Afghan/Islamic law regarding homosexuality/child abuse would invariably come off wrong. Better would be an information campaign that advocates in the children's favor (think DoS), and turning over hard evidence (we have video of the actual events) to local prosecuter and pressuring action through their system.

Any direct action on our part becomes and change of mission and/or a tar baby.

Believe me, given that ROE authorized use of deadly force to prevent rape, I had a very hard time restraining myself and others. But until we call this a crusade, we will have to stick to our mission.