Green-on-blue attacks continue unabated - Afghan soldier wounds 5 U.S. troops

An Afghan soldier shot and wounded five U.S. soldiers outside a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan late Tuesday.

ISAF refused to confirm the nationality of the wounded soldiers, but an Afghan official confirmed that they were Americans.

The attack comes after three British troops were shot dead by an Afghan police officer at a checkpoint in Afghanistan on Sunday. Last month, a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan was killed and nine others were injured when three Afghan police officers turned their guns on them.

Green-on-blue attacks by the U.S. and coalition forces' supposed Afghan allies have escalated dramatically since President Obama took office in 2009.

At least 26 [or 27] coalition service members have been killed by their purported Afghan allies in the first 6 months of this year alone; 35 coalition troops were killed by their so-called Afghan partners over a 12-month span last year; 20 were killed the previous year; 4 were killed in the years 2007 and 2008 combined.

The U.S. military is supposed to be working closely with their Afghan allies to train and mentor them in order to facilitate President Obama's plans to hand over Afghanistan's security to the Afghan forces by the middle of 2013. However, the huge spike in green-and-blue attacks casts an ominous pall over the President's precipitate retreat strategy, and also underscores the perils inherently intertwined with his defeatist mindset.