Chairman: US troops shouldn’t be policemen

U.S. troops stationed abroad should not police foreign countries, but they should be able to retain their values, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said Friday.

The comment was in response to allegations that U.S. troops in Afghanistan were instructed not to report when their Afghani counterparts sexually assaulted boys, and were punished when they did intervene.

“We will be engaged in other countries with other cultures a lot, and we cannot expect U.S. military to be policemen everywhere they’re sent and solve every local crime,” he said. “We also cannot expect them to stop being Americans and to check their American values at the door.”

Pentagon officials briefed Thornberry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Friday on the issue, as well as a particular case that’s making headlines.

Earlier in the week, the Pentagon said there is no policy telling troops to look the other way. But while condemning the abuse, some also said it’s a matter for the local Afghan law enforcement to handle.

Friday’s briefing was preliminary, Thornberry said, and there will be more investigation into the issue.

One aspect Thornberry said he wants to examine is whether the drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan affected the reporting of sexual abuse.

“It is, I think, one of the broader questions for us to look into,” he said. “Was there a rush to get in and out? And if there was, what effect did that have?”

At Friday’s briefing, Thornberry also received the official investigation into Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland, who is in the process of being discharged for his role in beating up an Afghan commander who had chained a boy to his bed.

Lawmakers, particularly Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), have been fighting to keep Martland from being discharged.

In a press conference after the briefing, Thornberry said he had yet to read the investigation and so wasn’t ready to make a conclusion on the decision to discharge Martland.

“I don’t think the appropriate question is, ‘Would you, Mac Thornberry, have made the same judgment given this information?’” he said. “The appropriate question for us in Congress is, ‘Is this working the way it should? Is the process fair?’”