Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/12/2012

The U.S. Army has come up with a proposed training manual for members of the American military serving in Afghanistan that warns soldiers to respect the sensitivities of the Afghan people. It tells them they should not criticize the Taliban or Islam, nor should they take Afghan men to task for pedophilia or wife-beating. The top American military commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen, says he does not like the new manual, and won’t support it.

In other news, the Obama administration has officially recognized the Al Qaeda-affiliated Syrian rebels as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people. The administration also said that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fired scud missiles at the rebels.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Lurker from Tulsa, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.