Defense One has an interesting article about the Italian Carabinieri functioning extremely well in Afghanistan. They protected and extracted Italian nationals, including diplomats, plus Afghans who had been helpful to Italians there.
The author credits their success to the force's clever mixture of training in both light infantry and police tactics. And as their name implies, they were a police force that routinely carried short rifles, aka carbines, in lieu of sidearms.
U.S. military police approximate this training, except they don't routinely deal with foreign civilians as do carabinieri. I suspect that difference is important.
The other DrC's father was born in Italy and his uncle was a retired carabinieri. Family lore claims carabinieri were expected to be linguists, a skill set they share with our Green Berets. Being able to quickly pick up a few key phrases in another language could be crucial to operating in a place like Afghanistan.
