For Marines in Afghanistan: be careful where you fart

For Marines in Afghanistan: be careful where you fart

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So here’s the news: audible farting has been banned for some Marines downrange because it offends the Afghans.

I know there are many things in the Afghan culture that don’t seem normal to Americans and it’s hard to spend seven months working in someone else’s back yard. Still, the Marines I saw downrange are doing a pretty good job at trying to do the right thing around the Afghans.

They’re not supposed to cuss because it could be misunderstood (that one goes out the window a lot). And they stay away from talking about politics, religion or girls because those topics could escalate into major disagreements (they can’t communicate anyway because of the language barrier).

But farting? That’s practically a sport. Ok, it’s not soccer, but a good contest could open the door for cross-cultural exchanges, jokes and other gallows humor.

http://militarytimes.com/blogs/battle-rattle/2011/08/23/for-marines-in-afghanistan-be-careful-where-you-fart/

to stone women, refuse to educate them, make young boys into sex slaves, provide much of the various poppy products (some illegal in many places), endorse honor killings if the woman in the family does something disagreeable to the patriarch - but loud farting is unacceptable. Bizarre.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1819200 many responses here

I offer no commentary, merely a link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_P%C3%A9tomane