Stephan:   I suggest you read this story at two levels. The first is the obvious one about what American military command decided to do. To any student of Afghanistan this sexual exploitation of boys would have been known. As would the fact that this behavior has been going on for centuries. The military defaults to pragmatic. Not surprising actually, just realpolitik. The other level is that this is yet another data point attesting to the sexual dysfunctionality common to the adherents of all fundamentalist religions. I could do a story almost every day about Christian pastors, youth leaders, and the like and their abuse of children. There is an ongoing scandal about ultra-orthodox Jews.  I think Fundamentalism is a culturally augmented mental illness with a neurophysiological basis couched in religious terms. The child abuse discussed here is the result of the other symptom that defines this dysfunctionality: a need to sexually dominate and control females of all ages, and restrict access to their vaginas.  And where that religious belief becomes dominate there is nearly complete gender segregation. This leads inevitably to men having sex with boys, and a high degree of anal sex in heterosexual marriage.