Key Leader Engagement (KLE) TTPs

[jcustis]

The indigenous Afghans are often more forgiving of our cultural missteps than our Kabul-born cultural advisors, and wearing boots indoors, sunglasses when talking, or accidentally allowing the sole of your boot to face an Afghan is not going to inflame the insurgency. I think we tend to put too much emphasis on what I call, "doing the dance", when in fact our hosts would much rather sit down and talk business.

And when it comes to dealing with GIRoA officials, it is wise to remember that they may have an impressive grasp of English. It is like my wife and mother conversing in Tagalog. I might not understand everything, but I certainly know when they are talking about me!

Great point Chris about getting up and moving, from a privacy perspective. I attended a Regional Security Shura once, and as soon as some of the attendees could get away with it, they slipped out of the main room and began holding discussions out in the courtyard and hallways.

[Infanteer]

"Advance to Shura" became a mission task verb for us. Our company had a pretty slick set of TTPs for Shuras that I can pass on to a .mil address; PM me if interested.

A Pashtun cultural expert can validate this, but I was always under the impression that shuras with foreigners and outsiders from the village were "show shuras" and that the real shuras, when the village elders got together before or after the "show shura", was where the real decisions were made.

In dealing with village leaders (many whom I had frequent meetings with), I'd often announce a shura and than push something on some of them in private, knowing that the "show shura" would involve a lot of grandstanding, likely as village elders try to impress the villagers.

[jcustis]

A Pashtun cultural expert can validate this, but I was always under the impression that shuras with foreigners and outsiders from the village were "show shuras" and that the real shuras, when the village elders got together before or after the "show shura", was where the real decisions were made.

We saw this occur on multiple occasions. It was funny to see them advance a specific position for a while before the shura might break down into tribal and individual interest. As the meeting continued and we got deeper into tough negotiations, or the discussions began to break down, the leaders would pretty easily come back to their original points, especially if they were trying to present the facade of supporting the district governor, and display solidarity. Rehearsed consensus was what I jokingly called it.

There were also a few instances of a proxy "leader" presenting himself to us when making contact with target village that had previously seen limited visitation and contact from us or the previous unit. I had seen that in a cultural engagement handbook that I read before the deploy and carried with me.

ETA: The British paid a few visits down our way with some SOF troops, and I could swear I heard the term FIND, FEEL, INFLUENCE used during a few coordination meetings. I think that very appropriately describes the battle drill involved, much like Infanteer's comment about "Advance to Shura" used as a mission task.

[jcustis]

From Tim Lynch's Free Range International comes an important dictum - "Under promise and over deliver" - and in that, the cultural advisors get it right when they preach similar advice (but make no mistake, Lynch is better than an advisor).

Nothing used to fascinate me more than how the other side of the carpet returned to something promised or even mentioned in the vein of, "we can take a look at that." when they thought they could gain from it.

They are smart opportunists, but that stems as well from the some of their foundation as a survivalist culture.

[EPA]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the info. I've been lurking for quite a while soaking up all the information. I'm deploying to Afghanistan this fall with a Marine Inf Bn. En Shallah I'll be a rifle Co Cmdr.

If you all are good with it I'll pass this info on to other EWS students who are so interested.

Thanks again,

Pete

Infanteer,

I sent you a pm with my .mil address if you could pass on your unit's shura info it would be appreciated.

[jcustis]

EPA, I'll dig up the KLE SOP I drafted for the battalion and send it your way if you can PM me with a .mil address. Take from it what works and discard the rest, but it remains the document that I referenced for the task of handling shuras and KLE.

[Xenophon]

Lots of good stuff here. I'll add one thing: watch Restrepo. The Company Commander provides an excellent example of how not to act in a shura.