Afghan police on Comedy Central
Al Jazeera’s footage of Afghan police doing drugs makes Jon Stewart’s Daily Show.
Never thought a trip to the Arghandab District of Kandahar would leave Afroman in my head.
But apparently portions of the package we aired showing the Afghan police doing bong hits have made it to Comedy Central.
Kudos to Jon Stewart’s Daily Show for giving Al Jazeera credit (the footage comes at the end of his set). But the real props should go to the 82nd Airborne soldiers who filmed it.
“I hope a million people see it,” said one, who understood the twisted hilarity of it all.
They know that many Washington policymakers and eager-to-please commanders remain hellbent on inflating the gains made in training the Afghan security forces.
This is my third embed in the past year here in Afghanistan (along with my talented cameraman Tom Nicholson). And its not the first time soldiers (or in this case, Marines) have told us about the sorry state of their Afghan police counterparts.
Jon Stewart joked that he might have gone to high school with the Afghan police we showed in this piece. If he graduated in the 70s, or anytime Camero-hair and mullets were cool, there is always a possibility.
It’s hard to imagine just over 30 years ago that southern Afghanistan, known for its green marijuana and vast poppy fields, was a popular Western tourist destination referred to as the “Hippie trail.”
To come here now, though, one might literally risk getting “stoned to death,” or worse, even if they wear a badge.