Editorial: Soldiers as targets

Friday, Sept. 13, 2002 | 4:57 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: Sept. 15, 2002

A photo taken after the recent assassination attempt on Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai captured attention after it ran last weekend in the New York Times. It showed a U.S. Special Operations Forces soldier guarding the president. Not surprisingly, the photo showed a handgun and a grenade strapped to the soldier's waistband while he gripped an assault rifle. There was something else, though, that may have been surprising to some readers. The soldier's clothing, which bared most of his upper body, was definitely not standard issue. He had long hair. He wore a flowing scarf. He had a beard and mustache. He looked like an Afghan. Most who viewed the photo may have been momentarily taken aback until reasoning: He's a target. Of course, he must blend in.

But those viewers did not include some generals at the Pentagon, who quickly ordered standard uniforms, regulation haircuts and clean-shaven faces -- just as the Soviets looked when they occupied Afghanistan and engendered such hatred among the civilian population. We're shocked that anyone knowledgeable enough to become a general could issue such an order. The beards and touches of local clothing were a way for the soldiers to gain respect among the Afghan people. Now, the soldiers stand out as different, as foreign -- whether viewed up close by children or through the scope of a sniper's rifle.