US Army Sgt. William R. Wilson III with his mother Kim. Sgt. Wilson was gunned down on Monday, March 26, 2012, by a member of the Afghan police force. Wilson and his family have paid the ultimate price for what JCC Gen. Dempsey is now calling "the additional risk" of"partnering" with Afghan Muslims subject to jihad's call.
RIP.
Two British troops were also killed by Afghan security forces on Monday. Since I last updated my quite unofficial figures on January 20 with the murders of four French troops, seven more Americans and two Albanians were murdered by Afghan security forces. The Albanian incident, which took place on February 20, occurred as Albanian troops were accompanying a USAID team for a meeting about opening two schools and a health center, when 11 Afghan policemen opened fire. They were all arrested.
This brings my grim toll -- General Dempsey's "additional risk" -- since November 2009 to 65. War correspondent Michael Yon, meanwhile, estimates 200 troops have been murdered in such attacks, whichwe know the Pentagon is routinely lying about.
This week, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey rather opaquely discussed these murders, obscuring the fact that they are the heart of the terrible price America is paying for see-no-Islam, Great Society with Guns, dhimmi, failed COIN in the Umma.
From American Forces Prss Service:
The United States still must balance its national security interests against the price service members in Afghanistan are paying, Dempsey said. "I’ll tell you definitively at this point that our national security interests are such that we have to take the additional risk that this brings," he added.
Really, General? Could you ecplain the "national" security interest involved that justifies the risk?
NATO and U.S. leaders can explore other avenues as well, the chairman said, noting that the more closely NATO and Afghan forces are partnered at the small-unit level, the less likely a so-called `green-on-blue' incident happens. However, he said, big units partnered with other big units don’t seem to have the same effect.
Now, we're down to "only" one or three a week....
The more individual partnering is, the chairman said, the less likely it is that such incidents occur. “So we are also looking at different ways to partner and work with them,” he said.
Officials will examine the situation and make recommendations in the near future, Dempsey told reporters. “It is a risk to the force, and it is a risk to the nation, and we have to stay on top of it,” he said.
From BuffaloNews.com:
"Local soldier killed in Afghanistan"
U.S. Army Sgt. William R. Wilson III was known for putting others first.
As a son and older brother, he was always there for his parents, William and Kim, and his brothers, Wesley and Jeremy.
Friends on Tuesday recalled his compassion in spending hours and days at the bedside of a Williamsville North classmate comforting her as she battled advanced stages of leukemia.
And he was always there "for his guys" as a U.S. Army squad leader.
"Anybody who met Billy considered him a brother or a son," said Wesley Wilson, 21, outside the family's Getzville home Tuesday evening. "He was a superhero."
Maybe that's why the one-story brick home on Dodge Road was surrounded by friends and neighbors who stopped by to share stories, show their support for the Wilson family and comfort them when word filtered out that Wilson, 27, was killed Monday in Afghanistan.
Kristen Fahnestock was one of them.
A classmate of Wilson in Williamsville North's Class of 2003, Fahnestock fought back tears describing her friend.
"He was an incredibly caring and compassionate guy. He believed in everything he was doing," she said.
The scene was unmistakable to passers-by. Dozens of cars lined Dodge Road and parked on the family's front lawn, which was outlined in small American flags. Two large U.S. Army flags flew in the front yard, and the trunk of a huge old-growth tree was wrapped in yellow ribbon.
Wilson, a seven-year veteran of the military, died in the latest attack in which Afghan security forces apparently turned on their foreign allies, according to reports.
Wilson was was one of three NATO soldiers killed Monday by Afghan forces and police in two separate incidents. He was shot by an alleged member of the Afghan local police as he approached a local police checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan, according to news reports.
Also on Monday, two British soldiers were gunned down by an Afghan soldier in front of the main gate of a civilian-military base in southern Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported.
The killings reflect a spike in tensions between Afghan and NATO forces that follow an American soldier's alleged massacre of Afghan civilians and the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base.
News of Wilson's death stunned family members, who asked for some privacy Tuesday, saying they expect to make further public statements in coming days. Arrangements remained incomplete Tuesday.
"I can't tell you a lot about what happened," his younger brother, Jeremy, 25, said in a brief conversation by telephone with The News on Tuesday afternoon. "He had a lot of friends and family. He touched a lot of lives."
Added Wesley Wilson, later: "It's hard. Right now, we're really just grasping everything."
Family members just saw Wilson a few weeks ago when he was home on leave. He had only headed back overseas earlier this month.
"Just wanted to thank all the fam and friends back home for a great time on leave," Wilson posted on his Facebook wall March 12. "Sorry I wasnt able to see some, but I'll catch you next time. Really had a blast and looking foward to the summer. Thanks! Slowly making my way back to the boys!"
"The boys," was Wilson's way of referring to his brotherhood of soldiers, according to Fahnestock.
"This was something he was meant to do," she said of Wilson's military career. "He loved it."
On his Facebook page, Wilson describes himself as a "squad leader" in the U.S. Army and shows a picture of a soldier -- possibly himself -- giving a high-five to a child in what looks to be a war zone.
Between May 2005 and May 2008, he was stationed in Fort Hood, Texas. In July 2008, he became squad leader and was stationed in Grafenwohr, Germany.
Fahnestock credited Wilson as being the glue that kept a close-knit bond of the Class of 2003 together long after graduation. She recalled Wilson's dedication to Jacquie Hirsch, a fellow classmate who was diagnosed with leukemia not long after she graduated from Geneseo State College with plans to become a teacher.
Jacquie died in 2008. But, Wilson always fought to make it back to Western New York in July to be at the annual Tinker Ball dance to raise money for the foundation in her honor.
The teary-eyed Fahnestock admitted it sounded trite Tuesday, but said, "It's a little bit of a comfort they're together now," calling Wilson and Hirsch "soul mates."
"He was a one of a kind," Wesley Wilson said.