The burning of Qurans by American soldiers at a base in Afghanistan and a U.S. soldier’s killing spree that ended up killing 16 Afghan civilians has escalated tensions in the war-torn country. Afghan security forces are now turning their guns on their U.S. and NATO counterparts with increased frequency. Just yesterday an Afghan soldier killed two British troops and an American soldier was killed at an Afghan police checkpoint.

An alarming statistic accompanies the grim news. CNN’s Security Clearance blog notes that one-third of U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan so far this year have come at the hands of Afghan security forces:

One third of all American troop deaths in Afghanistan this year has been at the hands of Afghan security forces. [...]

So far this year, 16 of the 46 American service members killed in Afghanistan have died in what are euphemistically called “green on blue” attacks: Afghan troops who have turned their weapons on allied forces.

Gen. John Allen, the top allied commander in Afghanistan, said yesterday that the attacks should be expected to continue, calling them a “a characteristic of counterinsurgency.” “We experienced these in Iraq. We experienced them in Vietnam,” Allen said, adding, “On any occasion where you’re dealing with an insurgency and where you’re also growing an indigenous force … the enemy’s going to do all that they can to disrupt both the counterinsurgency operations.”

Allen also said new procedures are being put in place to reduce the “green on blue” incidents. “[Afghans have] worked very closely within the national director of security to place counterintelligence operatives inside their schools, inside their recruiting centers, and inside the ranks, the idea being to spot and assess the potential emergence of an individual who could be an extremist or, in fact, a Taliban infiltrator,” he said.

There are a few staples at nearly any conservative conference, whether in Des Moines or Dallas or Denver. Americana songs, often written by liberal musicians, roar as speakers enter and exit the stage. When asked why they are there, attendees explain that they “want their country back.” And “no weapons allowed” signs are plastered on the outside doors.

This last element is surprising, considering the conservative philosophy on guns. This thinking holds that the public is actually safer if everyone is allowed to carry guns because armed, law-abiding citizens would dissuade criminals from committing violence. Yet in conservative events across the country, from the Americans For Prosperity (AFP) convention in Milwaukee last weekend to Allen West town halls in south Florida, attendees are instructed to leave their weapons at home.

One AFP official explained to ThinkProgress the thinking behind the weapons ban:

My guess is we wanted to keep it safe.

Indeed, as this comment suggests, there must be room in the debate over guns to implement commonsense regulations for public safety.

The question remains though. If conservatives really do believe that guns keep us safe, then why are they consistently banning them from conservative events?

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is trying to make hay about a comment President Obama made to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev this week that he needs some “space” on the missile defense issue until after the election this year. Russia “is without question our number one geopolitical foe,” Romney said, calling Obama’s comment “very, very troubling.”

Politico reports that Medvedev shot back at Romney today at a press conference in Seoul, South Korea:

“I always get very cautious when I see a country resort to phrasings such as ‘No. 1 enemy.’ It is very reminiscent of Hollywood in a certain period of history,” Medvedev said, through a translator, at the nuclear security summit in Seoul, South Korea. [...]

“My other advice is to check their clocks from time to time,” Medvedev said Tuesday. “It is 2012, not the mid-1970s. No matter what party a candidate represents, he has to take the current state of affairs into account.”

Obama also adressed the issue today, saying that what he told Medvedev wasn’t anything new. “I think everybody understands — if they don’t, they haven’t been listening to my speeches — that I want to reduce nuclear stockpiles,” Obama said, adding, “And one of the barriers to doing that is building trust and cooperation around missile defense issues. And so this is not a matter of hiding the ball.”

Nevertheless, it seems Romney — who could use a distraction from his own issues — isn’t going to let the matter die. “I don’t think he can recover from it, to tell you the truth,” he said on a radio show yesterday.

President Obama has fallen under attack from the Republican National Committee and the GOP presidential candidates after a live microphone picked up a private conversation in which he asked Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for “space” and “patience” on the missile defense issue until after November’s election.

Today, Obama hit back at his critics. “I think everybody understands — if they don’t, they haven’t been listening to my speeches — that I want to reduce nuclear stockpiles,” Obama said today. “And one of the barriers to doing that is building trust and cooperation around missile defense issues. And so this is not a matter of hiding the ball,” said Obama, in remarks delivered on the final day of the nuclear security summit in South Korea.

Obama took on his critics’ charges that his comments to Medvedev showed weakness on nuclear security and pointed to the political realities of the campaign season as severely limiting his ability to move forward on major policy initiatives, telling reporters:

[T]he only way I get this stuff done is if I’m consulting with the Pentagon, with Congress, if I’ve got bipartisan support, and frankly, the current environment is not conducive to those kinds of thoughtful consultations.

I think the stories you guys have been writing over the last 24 hours [about the open mic incident] is pretty good evidence of that.

Yet the GOP will try to make something out of Obama’s rather innocuous comments. Hours after Obama’s exchange with Medvedev, the Republican National Committee produced a new video asking “what else is on Obama’s agenda after the election that he isn’t telling you?” and Mitt Romney said of Obama and his open mic comments, “I don’t think he can recover from it, to tell you the truth.”