U.S. civilian lit on fire in Afghanistan

I got a military press release on this story yesterday, and it seems little else is known about the incident: An Afghan national in Meywand, Khandahar province, reportedly doused a U.S. civilian working with the U.S. military with a flammable liquid and lit the worker on fire. Another U.S. civilian then shot and killed the ...

I got a military press release on this story yesterday, and it seems little else is known about the incident:

I got a military press release on this story yesterday, and it seems little else is known about the incident:

An Afghan national in Meywand, Khandahar province, reportedly doused a U.S. civilian working with the U.S. military with a flammable liquid and lit the worker on fire. Another U.S. civilian then shot and killed the attacker.

The burn victim sustained serious injuries and was transported to a Coalition forces medical facility for treatment.

That’s pretty horrible. The interesting bit, however, is this detail:

The U.S. civilians were working with teams of anthropologists and psychologists that help the U.S. military with cultural awareness.

There’s a fierce debate among anthropologists about the morality and practical effects of working with the U.S. military, a topic we addressed a few months back in a debate between Hugh Gusterson and Peter D. Feaver.

One aspect of the discussion we didn’t really delve into was the military’s controversial "human terrain teams," in which social scientists actually embed with military units to advise them on cultural issues. It sounds like the civilian was a member of such a team; I imagine this incident in Afghanistan will make it even harder to recruit qualified folks.

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