That Cow Is Not A Big Deal

Before I commence my actual reaction, I would like to say that I am not in the position to judge the behaviour of the soldiers in Afghanistan. I am no proponent of any war, but it would be inconsiderate to blame the soldiers for it, as they are merely doing their job in an often very hostile environment. Even though they can expect something like that to happen when they join the army, it is not them who started the war and I strongly believe that war and violent conflicts brings up the worst in any person, especially one trained to kill and to then feel no regret or remorse*.

Ironman54, even though I can agree with some of the things you point out, you seem to misjudge the situation and draw an equally false comparison in this discussion. I am rather sure -based on their behaviour and choice of words**- that the American soldiers are not considering themselves the neighbours of the Afghanis, while in return they are not considered as such by the Afghanis.
In fact, the Americans 'took the land' upon which they built their OP Restrepo, including the barbed wire that ultimately caused the cow's death, based on the American belief of freedom and morals. It might all be for a greater good, at least in the eyes of the Bush Administration, but what good is that to an Afghan elder whose main -perhaps only- source for milk, food, fuel and warmth has just been shot and eaten by American soldiers? Would you not complain and demand money -instead of rice- from the North Korean army, had they chosen to invade your country to deliver you from capitalism, built up an outpost right next to your house and got your cow killed?

Even though I can imagine that it is a very uneasy situation for an American soldier to be in hostile territory on a mission to 'win the hearts and minds' of the Afghan people, while you were trained to 'take their hearts and minds' (as one of the soldiers strikingly pointed out), and based on what I saw in this documentary***, it is hard to say that they were doing such a good job in befriending the people of the Korengal valley. Again, it is inconsiderate to blame the soldiers for this, but that does not mean that they are not responsible for the way they are acting towards the locals.


*As was shown towards the end of the meeting, when the soldiers at OP Restrepo describe how an enemy soldier gets "blast to pieces" by their gunfire, chuckling in awe.

**In one of the Shura meetings, Kearney bluntly tells one of the Afghan elders that "he doesn't *beep* care" about some Abdul Mohammed -if I remember correct. In other meetings, Kearney is equally offensive in his attitude towards the Afghan elders, frequently using the word *beep* throughout his sentences. Now, the Afghan elders might not understand what he is saying, and hopefully the translator does not translate Kearney's sentences word-for-word, but it is rather obvious that Kearney has very little respect for the Afghan elders. Would he talk like that in front of his parents?

***Including the words that Kearney spoke about the incident in which 5 locals were killed and several women and children were wounded.

First worlders may not understand it fully, but a cow is not just burger to them. It was the man's livelihood. The cow's weight in beans? It's like Colombus offering trinkets for gold or something all over again.

$400 is also actually just about the right price for a cow. Maybe not in the US where cows are almost literally manufactured on an assembly line. But in subsistence agricultural economies, a single cow IS worth that much. As for wanting money, duude. These aren't *beep* tribals in the Amazon. What would you want if someone shot your cow? And yes it's "illegal" in the sense, that you don't just walk over and eat someone else's cow and pretend it didn't happen, war or no war. Would you do that to your neighbor back home? No, right?

The elders were not even demanding it. Why would they? They had no power to demand anything. Through the course of the movie you come to realize that they've tried to raise the matter more than a few times already through the Shuras. When those three or four elders finally showed up at Restrepo to talk directly to the soldiers who ate it, you could sense the trepidation and the atmosphere of "they're not going to listen anyway" from all of them. Even fear, as the Americans have already demonstrated that they are quite capable of making someone disappear if they want to. And they were right, they got offered beans ffs. Beans for a cow.

Yes, a cow pales in comparison to the deaths of three soldiers in the course of the film. But the cow isn't the issue. It's the fact that by simply shrugging off the cow, they were worsening the already hostile impression they're giving to the villagers. Villagers who know where the Taliban are. And villagers who might have been given the courage to shrug off the death threats and warned the soldiers in advance of the ambushes, if they felt enough that the Americans were truly there to help.

And before anyone calls me a hypocrite because I wasn't there or anything. I grew up in a third world country in pretty much similar conditions as those guys, though not quite as abject. Watching how clumsily the soldiers treated the civilians was teeth-gritting. I could pretty easily imagine myself in the Afghani's shoes, and it was weird how the soldiers didn't seem to be capable of doing that.

Even during the Shuras for example. All that cussing! At elders of all people, not mindful of the fact that given the ubiquitousness of western media, even goatherders in Afghanistan probably know what "*beep*" means. Another example is the very visible disdain one of them was displaying when they interrogated that shepherd with the watch. The one who reassured his wife while looking like he was about to puke out of fear. And you could pretty much read what the Afghanis were thinking at the point after they just strafed a household with women and children and killed five men (who as far as I can gather, were never proven to be with the Mujahideen). The conversation was civil, but that old guy's fury was quite obvious in his eyes when he asked the men to point out which of the five were Taliban. I was already expecting it by the time they got intel that the elders were now supporting jihad. It was inevitable.

No respect, no empathy, no nothing. They treated the Afghanis like retarded children. Like mere annoyances who get in the way of war, instead of the actual victims of the crossfire. A little sensitivity training would go a long way here.