During last month’s sex scandals involving Tampa socialites, biography writers, and military generals, many people in the Coastal Bend were horrified to learn there is still a shooting war going on in Afghanistan. The American Army hasn’t forgotten about the shooting war. In a demonstration of focusing on the unimportant instead of the important, the Army is writing up new guidelines for soldiers interacting with Afghans. Check out these pearls of wisdom:
“… offers a list of “taboo conversation topics” that soldiers should avoid, including “making derogatory comments about the Taliban,” “advocating women’s rights,” “any criticism of pedophilia,” “directing any criticism towards Afghans,” “mentioning homosexuality and homosexual conduct” or “anything related to Islam.”
I spent over eight years living in Afghanistan working almost exclusively with an Afghan crew built around a nucleus of trusted Afghan friends. Making “derogatory comments” about the Taliban, criticizing Afghans (particularly politicians), busting their balls about dancing boys, noting the fact that they have more terms for buggery then the Eskimos have for snow, and teasing them about their cultural mores was how we bonded.
I learned over the years working in Afghanistan that people are people no matter where you are. When operating in an active conflict zone the only way to learn how to interact effectively with the locals is to engage with the locals. One has to build up a baseline of trust which can not be done without open and honest communication. There are huge variations between Afghans and Westerners in what constitutes acceptable topics for public conversation, but learning the cultural norms is not hard and doesn’t take long.
The ISAF mission in Afghanistan now seems to be focused on training Afghan security forces in the way of the gun, so they can defend what is now recognized as the most corrupt government in the world. Our “COIN Doctrine” remains silent on what to do when the government one is trying to support is the most corrupt in the world.
Explaining how US AID works to Governor Barahowi, Kang District, Nimroz Province, December 2010. When we arrived at the district intake canal opening ceremony, I received a message on my cell phone in English that said, “Welcome to Iran”. Why would that be in English?
The military has learned how to operate inside the bureaucracy using the same techniques the “outside the wire crew” used over the years. This is a quote from a Belmont Club post that I also quoted in this prescient November 2009 FRI post on Counter-Bureaucracy:
“In other words, they wanted to give the troops a chance against the bureaucracy. In that fight, the troop’s main weapon was the habitual relationship, a word which apparently signifies the informal networks that soldiers actually use to get around the bureaucracy. If done by the book most everything might actually be impossible. Only by performing continuous expedients is anything accomplished at all.”
It seems strange that the Army goes to Afghanistan for over a decade, learns how to operate Afghan style inside their own bureaucracy, yet fails to apply the same solution in their dealings with Afghans. They do not have the patience, time or ability to develop the “habitual relationships” required to navigate inside Afghan society. As a result they devise ludicrous short-sighted strategies such as walking on eggshells around Afghan troops.
Also in the linked FRI post was the definitive description of “COIN” by my good friend Mullah John. I think it has withstood the test of time.
”COIN is the graduate level of war: complete nonsense. COIN is police work, a touch of CT with decent municipal services. To say that handing out welfare in Logar (Eastern Province in Afghanistan) requires even the same level of military expertise as conducting Overlord or the Six Day War is utter rubbish.
It’s hubris designed to make Petreaus et al seem to be considerably more clever than they actually are and also serves to justify the continued existence of the US Army at its current size and holds out the hope however unlikely, that Zen Masters like the object of the article have the magical answer to Pashtoon objections to foreign armies being in their country: Poetry! Of course why didn’t we all see it and VON KRIEGE in the original German ! and Sun Tzu and captains being allowed to spend money EUREKA!
BTW thinking outside the box normally describes thought at odds with received wisdom and certainly with the entire chain of command.”
Here is long and very sad story by Dr. Peretz Partensky from the Synergy Strike Force. It is the first of what will become many upsetting tales concerning Afghans who befriended and worked with us “foreigners”. Below is an extract from the end of Peretz’s fascinating story:
“On August 21, motorcycle gunmen targeted Sudir and Najib’s car. Sudir managed to accelerate away unharmed. The rear windshield was shattered and three bullets lodged inside the cabin, including one in the driver’s seat.
“Najib wrote to share a rumor of a circulating kill list with forty names. All of these people are Afghans who have been associated with Americans. His family has asked him to leave Jalalabad because his presence presents a danger to them. His cousins have split up his land with a ritual rite of inheritance, as if he were dead. An old friend of his from the orphanage in Tashkent, whom he’s found on a Russian social network, has taken him in.
Sudir’s family’s land was also confiscated, by neighbors invoking Ghanima law, which says that you can pillage the land of your enemies. Sudir had been saving earnings from his work for the SSF, but supporting his displaced family has now burned through these resources.”
These days, I hesitate to log onto Facebook or Skype, partly to avoid conversations (like one below) with one of my former Afghan crew, a competent engineer who is a good man:
Dear Mr. Tim,
Good day I hope you and your family are doing well,
It has been long time that I have not heard of you ? Where are you in these days. Here in Afghanistan we see lots of new programs runing under USA fund but I dont know about your plan is there any plan you to have some USA fund for our country or not . If there is fund or program with you for our country please contact us to help you in implementaion or if you dont please try to get some fund for programs. Beucase this is the time that USA again provided fund in Afghanistan .
I have Mr. S******* former ### International security manager say hello to you and to your family and he has also imphasized that you need to come Afghanistan and help your formers subardonates getting jobs, otherwise we are about to be taken by flood , you know what I mean if you dont have support you will have never job by your own qulification. Eventually, we need you here our big loin .
Best Regards:
G**** And S*********
These notes break my heart as I contemplate the misfortune that has befallen our friends in Jalalabad. Sudir and Najib are pseudonyms for guys who are not only college graduates but talented Fab Labbers. They also, along with my son Logan, built out the Jbad Fab Fi system. What’s happening to them is a disaster and there seems to be nothing any of us can do for them.
From left to right Dan (friend of Matthew VanDyke), Mehrab, Matthew VanDyke and I outside the Taj in November of 2010. Mehrab was gunned down outside his home in August 2012.
As I have said repeatedly in the past, Afghanistan is not going to end well. There was a time when many of us who worked there had hope for some sort of acceptable endstate. That hope is about gone, as are too many good friends like the late manager of the Taj Mehrabudin Saraj pictured above with Matthew VanDyke and I in Jalalabad, November 2010.
The next two years are going to be painful for those of us who have friends, family or interest in Afghanistan. I’m not sure I can sit them out either but, at the moment, have no plans to go back. I’m not going to be able to watch my friends suffer because they spent years loyally working with me. I’m not sure what I can do but do know doing nothing is not an option.
Thanks for the post TimSan ! I particularly enjoyed the Peretz story about the Basketball Diaries. The picture of Mehrab broke my heart yet again.
“I’m not going to be able to watch my friends suffer because they spent years loyally working with me I’m not sure what I can do but do know I must do something.”
Amen Brother….
Your friends are up “sh*t’s creek” and everyone who has a touch of reality knows this. The game was always going to be a loser for everyone concerned (sure, some have made fortunes…as always in history…cowards come in many forms, ask Bill Clinton for starters). Since Viet Nam (at least from my life perspective) America has looked at our world with a stigmatized view: That Eagle grasping spears and shafts of wheat…which one do we offer to others? Our State Department got loaded up with Peace Corps types. Defense went around looking for soldiers…ramped up the reserves, gave away education funds, enlistment, retaining bonuses galore, added new weapon systems to “protect” the soldier on the ground, and of course created a new military “brain trust” which moved more into a defensive, limited application of power to those areas chosen by others, those others having been educated via our law schools…
Step way back from this game and take a long look at the dominant energies at play in America. Kerry is to be the leader of State, while Hagel goes for Defense. Want to be Jewish and living in the middle east?
Oh, lest we forget, everyone who serves in our military, who goes into a “hot zone” and returns now “suffers from PTSD” or some other crippling problem, if one is to believe those efforts “Wounded Warrior” and others profess to be realities on our television screens as they seek dollars for what many consider a noble effort.
Obama rails against “assault looking” weapons only to get gun control…yet when I look at those cops coming onto the campus of that school in Conn. all I see are automatic weapons, bullet proof vests, military helmets…and smiles of guys just looking for action. A dictator needs control to live the life he seeks for himself and those who support his reign…history is replete with such stories.
And it is to history that one must look for salvation and understanding. Even Sarah Palin (read her latest thoughts on the Conn. shooting) gets it!
And your thoughts on friends left behind in Afghanistan underscores a real truth: There are good people all over, in every place on this planet. Family is the very nucleus of life which should be nourished and protected at all times. Life is complex, yet so simple. Love does make the world go ’round! Hate stops it dead in it’s tracks…
Just what side of life’s coin do you wish to play? Dancing on the edge only goes so far…
I thought Chicago had the most corrupt government in the world.
Odd how when I read your work I hear echoes of what’s going on in my own head. I’ve mentioned my terp Rahim in an earlier conversation, and that is still not resolved, although at least Senator Moran’s people took the effort to shake the tree. The monkey has not fallen out yet. I hesitate to imagine how much angst you are bearing over your team.
One of the greatest rewards of our line of work is the people we meet along the way. By no means are all of them US citizens. We live and work with local people, kids, construction workers, farmers, security types, soldiers. Over time, it’s only natural that we develop close friendships with some of them. And then we go home, leaving them to deal with the problems that still exist and in many cases are getting worse.
I think daily about the guys who used to do light maintenance and housekeeping for us. “Ricky”, the head of the team; “Number One”, the schlepper, who got all the cleaning jobs and did the shopping; “Salaam”, the cook, who knew one recipe and was resistant to learning new ones. These guys were our daily companions. They weren’t bigwigs, had no connections, and were trying to do what all family men do….provide for the wife and kids. That’s hard enough in Afghanistan, but when you add to that the fact that they always had to look over their shoulders to avoid getting whacked by the opposition, you eventually come to the conclusion that they are real heroes.
The ANA and ANP guys were good enough. Some were pretty good soldiers, some were slackers and some were just goofy kids. They hated training, but if we were going to the range or heading out for an op, they were as eager as a beagle after a rabbit. And I never worried about my back while they were watching it. We did our best to train them, and when we left, the next team started all over again. Then the Marines came and took over the AO with a lot more guys and a lot more tools than we ever dreamed of getting. After working with crazy National Guardsmen, SF, and the Marines, I guess my troops are well enough trained to do what they need to do for Afghanistan….those who still survive. We lost a few in action, and since I left, the Kandak has suffered more losses.
I’d like to see all those guys brought back to “the World” and out of harm’s way. But they have to stay there, because without them, Afghanistan has no chance. At least with these white hats in play, some good may be saved, and when the house of cards falls, the collapse may be more of a graceful folding rather than a dramatic implosion.
Of course, if the kook fringe is right, all of this will soon be irrelevant as the world will end in a couple of days.
But the kook fringe is seldom right, and miracles do still happen. As it is the holiday season, I will bid you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. God grant that your burdens may be lightened in the coming year, your friends may be spared to live long and prosperous lives in a peaceful home.
My heart goes out to all your friends, coworkers, Afghans. There is coming a terrible demise “a blood debt”, under the Taliban that the US will turn a blind eye to.The earlier story can be read in a Congressional hearing of 1977 from Nyguen Cong Hoan. http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/hoan1.pdf
I did not serve in Vietnam as Saigon fell 30 days after I registered for the draft. I heard of many other stories from the “Boat People” of South Vietnam. I was directly involved in the resettlement of them in southern California.
There is no sea for the Afghans to escape to. I mourn for them now and into the future.
A “blood debt” so that sounds like you would be happy to welcome all those Afghanis to come and live here in the USA? Are you currently willing to sponsor ?
Another pointed and well done piece, babatim. One of my worries for the past couple of years when it became apparent it’s all going to pieces. The failure of the American plan has been long evident.
The people on our side will bear a heavy price, and aready, a lot of our military leaders have been providing for their terps and assistants on the refugee programs. It is, in fact, a matter of who you know. And if the COL’s and GEN’s have been doing this, it telegraphs their state of mind to the enemy, who have been sitting back, harassing the shit out of us, and waiting until we tuck tail and run.
COIN goes back to common sense principles of fair play, divide & conquer, and district management under the Empire. They did a pretty good job for a while. We lost it with constant rotations and changes of plan and tactics. A lot of the Afghans were either saying wtf or “whatever” in Pashto every time a new boy hero arrived.
And still the rulesmakers don’t seem able to differentiate between people who can in fact engage the population and those just off the C-17 from a farm in Iowa (no offense) who encounter a completely alien culture.
You are living in dreamland if you think that a lot of terps are getting visas. And Afganis know that under paktunwali SOMEONE has to pay for taking sides with the foreigners
Interesting read Tim. I have wounder what has happen to some of your buddies over there. It would seem most maybe dead by now. Michael Yon did a article about one of your exploits there.
An excellent post that describes the frustrations that many of us have after living and working in these conflict zones. For those of us who spend our time outside the wire, like Tim does, the personal relationships we develop cause additional frustration because we can see how policy mistakes made in Washington, DC and elsewhere have very real and personal affects on local people we know and care about in these countries. I hope Tim’s friends make it through ok.
The more troops that we sent the stronger the Taliban got. Afghanistan must solve its own problems. And yeah, I lived in Afghanistan for 6 months back in 76-77. Back when you could see Afghan women walking around Kabul in skirts. Back before we funded the radical conservative muslims and empowered them with billions. And back before there was bottled water everywhere.
Is there really nothing we can do for these guys? I’m trying to get my terp over here on an I-360 special immigrant petition but he’s getting frustrated on his end. Are there any tips or is really just as matth says, “it’s who you know”?