After Afghan security forces gunned down four American soldiers last week, the US military downplayed the insider attacks as “isolated incidents” and not a problem of Taliban infiltration.
However, the fatal ambushes brought to at least 30 the number of coalition troops killed just this year by their uniformed Afghan counterparts.
Americans made up more than half — 17 — of the deaths in 2012, meaning one out of every 12 Americans killed in Afghanistan this year have died at the hands of their trusted partners.
And it wasn’t even the only attack last week. Two men wearing Afghan army uniforms killed a US solider and wounded two others in another city.
The Pentagon doesn’t keep official tallies of so-called green-on-blue attacks, in which Afghan security forces training alongside US troops have turned their US-issued weapons on them.
In fact, there is evidence it has hidden the attacks in casualty notices.
Take the case of Marine Lance Cpl. Edward J. Dycus, who died earlier this year from a gunshot wound while serving in Afghanistan. In his official death announcement, the Pentagon said Dycus died “while conducting combat operations.”
In fact, an Afghan soldier shot the 22-year-old Marine in the back of the head while standing guard at an Afghan-US base. The Pentagon made no mention of the treachery in the notice it released to the public.
How many other “combat deaths” have, in fact, been caused by insider attacks?
The International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has kept at least partial count of insider attacks going back to 2007. Based on its figures, Afghan security forces have killed more than 80 American and NATO service members.
By the count of respected military blogger Michael Yon, however, the death toll is closer to 200.
For the first time Friday, an Afghan security commander ambushed US troops. The officer, who was helping US special forces train the local police, lured elite US soldiers to a Ramadan dinner at his outpost to talk security. He opened fire at close range, killing three and wounding one.
The Pentagon has claimed most of the attacks are motivated not by support for the Taliban but personal reasons, such as drugs and depression.
But a Taliban video, released Tuesday, casts doubt on that claim.
It features a Afghan soldier, Ghazi Mahmood, who says he is responsible for a May attack on US troops. He is cheered by his village, and garlands are put around his neck.
“I opened fire on three Americans who were sitting together,” he says, smiling for the camera. “The reason I killed them is because they have occupied our country. They are enemies of our religion.”
He said that there are many other uniformed Afghans “looking for the opportunity to kill infidels.”
Internally, the military has acknowledged this is a bigger problem than officials have let on.
A May 2011 study commissioned by the US Army says “fratricidal” assaults by uniformed Afghans are no longer isolated and are “provoking a crisis of confidence and trust among Westerners training and working with the ANSFs [Afghan National Security Forces].”
The report said US troops regarded their counterparts as “treacherous and murderous radicals” secretly colluding with the Taliban.
Why would military brass cover up such growing treachery?
Politically, it raises embarrassing questions about the merit of US forces training 350,000 Afghan army soldiers and police as part of President Obama’s 2014 exit strategy.
The rush to stand up a national army has led to lax personnel and base security, exposing US soldiers to attack by Taliban infiltrators.
If Afghan forces are infested with Taliban insurgents and sympathizers, the US, in effect, is arming and training terrorists to take over the country, while sharing with them valuable intelligence.
Paul Sperry is a Hoover Institution media fellow and author of “Infiltration” and “Muslim Mafia.”