Brave friends in Afghanistan
Posted by Richard on July 13, 2005
Via Brainster comes this feel-good story:
Here’s a good one:
Afghan villagers sheltered a U.S. Navy SEAL wounded in a battle last month with the Taliban until they could get word to American forces to rescue him, a military official said Monday.
An Afghan villager found the SEAL and hid him in his village, the official said.
According to military accounts, Taliban fighters came to the village and demanded the American be turned over, but villagers refused.
The SEAL wrote a note verifying his identity and location, and a villager carried it to U.S. forces, the official said. The note indicated to U.S. troops that they wouldn’t be entering into a trap. The commando was rescued July 3.
Heroes pop up in the most unlikely locations. The Afghan villagers mentioned here clearly qualify.
I’ll second that. And I’ll also note that it speaks pretty well of our efforts in Afghanistan when residents of a remote village in one of those backward, mountainous regions that’s a "stronghold" of the Taliban choose to be on our side.
White Avenue said
Of course the sizable reward might have had something to do with it. And getting the SEAL out of the area alive would allow the villagers to go back to their centuries long vocation of growing poppies and harvesting opium.
BTW, the old hippie house has been razzed to the ground. Probably they will put up something really necessary like a 9th hole club house for the Cherokee Country Club. They didn’t even leave a hole where the furnace used to be.
Direct demands for a historical marker commemorating all the fun had on that spot to the Knoxville Department of Historical Markers.
Keep ’em flying.
Anonymous said
Reward? Nah, there are rewards for turning in al Quaeda and Taliban, but not for returning missing Americans. A reward for returning Americans might provide the wrong kind of incentive: “Yes, effendi, we found him up this goat path. We have no idea who might have snuck up behind him and knocked him unconscious.”
And if all they wanted was to get back to their poppies, slitting the soldier’s throat and leaving him on the road would have been much easier.
Further detail: The villagers told the Taliban that they wouldn’t surrender the American as long as any of them remained alive. Delivering the note to U.S. forces required a six-mile hike.
No, these are genuine good guys.
As for the old house, I’m surprised it lasted this long. And don’t you mean Hysterical Markers?