There have been a few incidents of turncoat local troops attacking NATO soldiers with whom they were working. This seems like it would not be a rare occurrence in this kind of conflict, but some aspects of these event points to underlying problems.

After one such event in July 2010, one NATO officer said "Our Afghan partners have got to look very carefully at what's happened and they've got to reassure us that they are doing everything they can to minimize it happening again".

People in every country and society are taught to believe that they are part of a superior collective. Generally though, people gain perspective as they get older. One disturbing trait in common on both sides of many wars is that those who make key military decisions are the people who never grew to understand the irony of superiority on both sides. In a tribal society superiority is a natural sentiment, but in a diverse alliance it is a warning sign. History is full of examples.

Wikipedia: "Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization: it is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted or diverged from."

The NATO officer seemed to be assuming that our "Afghan partners" made a careless mistake (in allowing a Taliban sympathizer to enlist) and that these "Afghan partners" should be taking measures to screen recruits for extreme beliefs. It is like a kindergarten teacher asking students to build a bridge over a river, and when they make a mistake the teacher says "you must work harder".

There are some political and military leaders who seem to see the difficulty of having one group of military ideologues fighting another, but they seem to also recognize the futility of telling their troops to understand something that their troops are perhaps too young to understand. General McChrystal was a good example of a military leader who seemed to understand a little better than most of his commanders that the War on Terror was more a meeting of countries than a meeting of armies.

What would be the likely effect of a 40 year old Afghan army commander being told that he had to "reassure" Americans that he was vetting his ranks according to American priorities? Some of the effect would depend on subtleties of language. Phrases like the one used by the NATO officer can often be translated creatively, but can almost never be translated entirely accurately.