[Shasown]

American units operating with Afghan units will share or even issue military equipment with their Afghan counterparts, they are also expected to integrate in with the unit as best as is possible.

Given that this video was taken in November, here is a really shocking idea for you.

The soldier with the bat was either an American given the honour or was in fact an Afghan who had the honour to sacrifice the sheep in a religious festival to honour Eid al-Adha.

That's a muslim festival that celebrates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael for the glory of God. Now in the story god intervenes and sends a sheep for Abraham to sacrifice in its place.

Just throw this in as a possibility having worked with Afghans in the past. Is it possible that this was a "celebration" in honour of that festival?

If it was, then technically the US soldiers present if there are any are simply complying with the order of respecting and even partaking in local religious celebrations in order to create stronger bonds between Afghani and Coalition Defence Forces.

As for those around cheering etc, again they have been told to respect even join in local celebrations, in fact in the Afghani eyes not to partake or to show disdain would also show disrespect.

To give you a clue about the Afghani attitude to animal life and sacrifice, think back to Rambo 3 the game of Buzkashi, the dead goat being hauled about by mounted riders, its played all over central asia and sometimes the goat isnt dead.

Bear in mind those soldiers even if they are Yanks have been fighting a war, they dont get to take that many days off from the rigiour of combat all that stress will desensitise them to things that they would normally turn away from. Its not like catching the 9.00 to the office then heading home on the 5.10.

I could post a vid that shows Ghurkas (members of the British Army) celebrating one of their festivals with a goat, which is in my eyes a whole lot worse than that originally posted.