[There was a video here]

Considering all the damage that's been done in Afghanistan, to Afghans and to Americans, one dog may not mean all that much in the big scheme of things. But Jesus, a dog. Jesus. He just wants to please somebody.

Via Ernesto Londoño at the Washington Post:

In the annals of prisoner-of-war videos, this seems to be a first. A slightly befuddled-looking Belgian Malinois appears on a tight leash, surrounded by heavily armed, bearded men boasting of their battlefield loot.

Wearing a black protective vest, the dog wags its tail at certain points and appears more confused than terrified as its captors showcase specialized rifles and a global positioning device with a blinking light that they say came attached to the canine.

"Allah gave victory to the mujahideen!" one of the fighters exclaims. "Down with them, down with their spies!"

A spokesman for the military confirms that coalition forces lost a working dog during a firefight in December. [Update: It's now believed he actually belonged to British special forces.] The man holding the dog's chain-link leash also carries a suppressed camo-painted M4 rifle with a telescopic sight, the type Western special operations troops often use on missions.

What will become of the dog? Hopefully he lives a fat and happy life. The Taliban of 2014 may prove less heartless than the Islamic foreigners training in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, who evidently practiced deadly chemical agent attacks on captive dogs.

The only thing that's certain, a military-dog trainer told Londoño, is this: "I know for sure the handler is devastated."