The young Texan woman talking to the
Afghan tribesman wears a US military uniform and carries an assault rifle, but
she's not a soldier, dpa
reported.
Her training is in anthropology, which is proving an
effective tool for negotiating the complexities of Afghanistan's honeycomb
tribal structure and, according to a senior US commander, significantly
reducing the need for "kinetic," or combat, operations.
"We describe the environment that the bad guys operate
in, build a foundation for units so they can understand their area," said
Audrey Roberts of the seven-member Human Terrain Team (HTT) in the eastern
Khost province. "It's important so our soldiers can ask informed questions
and so we don't walk round in circles."
Translated into actions, that means for example that units
are able to quickly tap the real powerbrokers as they push into guarded and
often fearful rural communities.
"Their expertise rapidly identified who to talk to in
the village," one officer was quoted as saying during a review in the US
Congress about the work of the HTTs since their inception in 2007.
"We were just ricocheting around before they got here,
talking to random people. The HTT saved me an enormous amount of time - 10 to
20 hours per village - in terms of who to talk to," he said.
And beyond the initial orientation, misunderstandings and
blunders that might have led to bloodshed were avoided.
"By better understanding the human terrain, we reduced
the number of kinetic operations that otherwise would have occurred,"
concluded Colonel Martin Schweitzer, commander of the 82nd Airborne Brigade
combat team that during its 15-month deployment worked in tandem with the first
HTT in Khost. "We must understand the culture to win."
Since the radical Islamic Taliban militia was ousted from
power in 2001, learning what makes the tribes tick has been a major challenge
for the United States and other armies in the 40-country International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
No easy task, given that there are about 60 main Pashtun
tribes and 400 sub-tribes in the conflict-ridden east and south. Those can
consist of a few families to hundreds of thousands of members and be entangled in
ancient rivalries; they may have election processes and legal codes that vary
from one village to the next.
Some tribes may support ISAF, others fight it actively with
the resurgent Taliban, or simply sit on the fence.
But the Pentagon is now looking for a healthy dividend from
the teams of contracted civilian anthropologists, political and social
scientists, ethnic Afghan cultural advisers and army officers.
There are currently 20 HTT's operating in Iraq but only six
in Afghanistan, where in some places there is no information at all about the
tribes and fractures within them. The specialists are now working to redress
the shortfall through close engagement.
"The only way we can do this is by going out and talking
to people, asking what are their grievances and the root causes of
conflicts," said the Khost team leader, Major Alex Wells.
Away from this interaction, one hurdle was overcoming
reservations about the human-terrain concept among more old-school soldiers:
"Even some of the hard-line infantry are now understanding that it's not
just (a matter of) kill kill kill," Wells said.
But despite emphasis on achieving goals through knowledge
rather than force, team members carry arms so they can defend themselves in
brushes with Taliban insurgents while out in the field.
They do not take part in combat operations but can be as
exposed to hazards like ambushes and roadside bombs as regular units.
Roberts, 26, wears a remembrance bracelet for her late
colleague Michael Bhatia, a social scientist who died with two soldiers in a
bomb blast in May. His portrait hangs over the door of their office on the main
US base in Khost.
At a recent meeting with elders of the Mangal tribe, one of
the largest in Khost, HTT personnel mingled and chatted to guests through
Pashtun interpreters while stressing that they are not conventional military
intelligence gatherers.
Whether the tribesmen really get the distinction is unclear,
but partners in the local government seem receptive.
"This is the first time we had such a meeting with the
coalition forces, I think it was productive," said Mirzaman Sabari, deputy
head of the provincial Department of Tribal Affairs.
"If they listen to the elders and take their advice then
they can properly get to know Afghan tradition and culture."