Human Terrain & Anthropology (merged thread)

[120mm]

From the Featherstone piece:

As a vision of the future it was pragmatic and, I feared, too optimistic. The military will always be a blunt instrument, whether it is crashing through walls or entering through a door held open by an HTT. But as long as we use our military as the primary tool of our foreign policy, one could hardly improve upon this vision.

Kudos to Steven for asking the right question, ala "I, Robot".

How about we develop non-military foreign policies that address fighting radical islam, while simultaneously addressing some of the causes that radicalists use to gain support against us through a civilian-led and academically vetted set of programs designed to solve problems without using military force?

I believe Galula said in his seminal counterinsurgency book that the counterinsurgency needs to be led by a civilian agency. But then, he also said that the legal issues surrounding how to deal with insurgents need to be worked out first, but at least we are consistent.

[Ron Humphrey]

I told grandpa I was going to get out on my own because I didn't need my parent's telling me what to do any more. I was growed up

He told me that parents and the army are like the jewlers tools and a sledge hammer.

Both can be used to refine a diamond the difference
is in how fine the final result is.

The military can and will do whatever it has to but it is important to understand that the end result will never be quite as pretty as it would be where the diplomats and other gov agencies actually where able to handle the entirety of their own missions.

[wm]

Here's a recent posting in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the latest HTS casualty in A-Stan.

An American woman working with the U.S. Army’s controversial unit of civilian social scientists embedded with troops in Afghanistan was seriously wounded when she was set afire in an apparent Taliban attack, Wired’s Danger Room blog reports.

On Tuesday, Paula Loyd, a member of the Army’s Human Terrain Team, was interviewing villagers in Maywand, in Kandahar Province, when she reportedly approached a man carrying a jug of gasoline. They started discussing the price of gas when he suddenly doused her with the fuel and set her alight.

[120mm]

My prayers go out to Paula, and hope she has a rapid and complete recovery.

[marct]

I was chatting with several of the HTS people over the weekend, and this highlights one of the oft-unspoken problems with the program - teaching academics to duck. Apparently, in Paula's case, her guard took his eyes off her for 5 seconds and the attack came totally out of the blue. I hope she recovers, we need more people like her.

BTW, nice comment over at the Chronicle 120.

[120mm]

I was chatting with several of the HTS people over the weekend, and this highlights one of the oft-unspoken problems with the program - teaching academics to duck. Apparently, in Paula's case, her guard took his eyes off her for 5 seconds and the attack came totally out of the blue. I hope she recovers, we need more people like her.

BTW, nice comment over at the Chronicle 120.

I've been busily following up on negative, uninformed comments on various blogs; I've been researching the program, and the more I learn, the more I like it.

Unfortunately, it has had birthing pains from its relatively fast growth as well as some early on mistakes, and there are all sorts of critters who are jumping on each and every problem to bang their drum opposing it.

[marct]

I've been busily following up on negative, uninformed comments on various blogs; I've been researching the program, and the more I learn, the more I like it.

Unfortunately, it has had birthing pains from its relatively fast growth as well as some early on mistakes, and there are all sorts of critters who are jumping on each and every problem to bang their drum opposing it.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I did a fair amount of blogging on it during the summer.