WASHINGTON — The Pakistani Taliban uploaded a propaganda video earlier this week showcasing a U.S. M4 rifle and its fighters training in white socks.
In the video titled, “Stomach to Fight,” the rifle is featured prominently in the video, and at several points, a lone shooter is filmed aiming and firing the weapon. Other fighters are brandishing typical Kalashnikov rifles commonly used by militants in Central and Southwest Asia.
The placement and shots of the M4 appear to give the weapon significance and importance with the group.
Also known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, the Pakastani Taliban are a separate group from the Afghan Taliban.
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The TTP is almost exclusively at war with the Pakistani government, whereas the Afghan Taliban is waging an insurgency against the international coalition and Kabul-based government.
The TPP operate mainly in the ungoverned regions of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Prominently featured in the video are militants almost exclusively wearing white socks, an infraction guaranteed to draw the ire of Marine Corps first sergeants everywhere.
Whether the white socks will hasten the demise of the militant group remains unknown, but Marines have been complaining about scorn and punishment doled out by leadership over wearing the abundantly available and vastly more comfortable socks since the dawn of time.
Articles on the controversy have even appeared in the Marine Corps Gazette. “Sadly, the color of one’s socks has become an indicator of one’s worth as a Marine,” one Marine lieutenant colonel complained in the Gazette.
The Pakistani Taliban was designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department in 2010. Interestingly enough, the Afghan Taliban is not considered a terror group by the U.S. government despite its extensive ties to al-Qaeda and the Haqqani Network, organizations officially black-listed as terrorist organizations.
The group is known to carry out deadly attacks, including an attack in 2014 on a school in Peshawar that killed over 140 people, according to a BBC report.
Shawn Snow is the senior reporter for Marine Corps Times and a Marine Corps veteran.
