March 07, 2010

The U.S. military is taking on a new experimental program in Afghanistan. Next month, 40 female Marines will deploy to Afghanistan to work as members of the first full-time "female engagement teams". These four- of five-member units will accompany male soldiers on patrol in Helmand province, and will try to speak with and win over rural Afghan women. These Afghan women are not allowed to talk to men outside of the family. "The teams, which are to meet with the Afghan women in their homes, assess their need for aid and gather intelligence, are part of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's campaign for Afghan hearts and minds. His officers say that you cannot gain the trust of the Afghan population if you only talk to half of it."

These female soldiers underwent "cultural awareness" classes and were trained on what to do (and what not to do) when talking to villagers in Afghanistan. For example, don't start off by firing questions, but do break the ice by playing with the children. They have been told to be sensitive to local customs, and as a result the female soldiers will wear head scarves. They are to wear head scarves under their helmets, but if that becomes too hot or uncomfortable, they will wear their scarves around their necks and then put them over their head once they take off their helmet. While on patrol, the female soldiers will carry M-4 rifles (which the article had to point out are "shorter and more maneuverable than the military's standard M-16s"), but once they are inside an Afghan compound (and Marine guards will be posted outside), they have been advised to remove their rifles, helmets, and body armor in order to not be seen as intimidating. This is assuming they feel safe enough to remove their armor. These teams are not looking for combat and they will mostly be working in areas largely cleared of militants. Though, as the war in Afghanistan essentially has no front lines, the teams took an extended combat-training refresher course in order to prepare for ambushes and snipers

The plan of the teams is to go to a village, get permission from the male elder to speak with the women, settle into a compound, hand out school supplies and medicine, drink tea, make conversation, and, ideally, get information about the village, local grievances, and the Taliban. The soldiers will ask the village women questions, such as what is the most difficult problem facing the village. The answers will then go into a database to guide military and aid workers. As a training instructor told the Marines, "If the population has told you that their biggest problem is irrigation and your unit does something about it, that's a huge success."

Ad-hoc teams in the past have found that rural Afghan women have more influence in their villages than they had previously believed. They found that these women often have a lot of information that is crucial to American forces, including information about the district's social fabric, power brokers, and militants. In some instances, women have provided information about specific insurgents and bomb-makers. In addition, they found that Afghan women could make other Afghans less suspicious of American troops. However, these village women are not able to talk to outside men. Thus comes the need for the female teams. The military captain who helped to create and train the teams recently said that when one of the teams visited a village in Afghanistan, a gray-bearded man allowed the women into his home, saying, "Your men come to fight, but we know the women are here to help."

The article also had to mention that this captain in charge of the teams wrote in an online publication that these female team members were "good for my old eyes." (Full Story)

I like that there are these teams that are receiving cultural awareness classes (definitely a must and often overlooked by the military) and that they will be talking with villagers. And that female villagers will be addressed as well. I think it's very important for villagers' needs and concerns to be taken into account. Plus, it's good that soldiers are attempting to form a relationship with the villagers. Nothing is going to be "won" in Afghanistan if the people of Afghanistan feel that the U.S. military are no better (if not worse) than the Taliban or other insurgents. So while I like the soldiers building relationships, the villagers and their concerns being taken into account, and women being addressed as well -- I am also a little skeptical about the motives. I can't help but think, and I don't think it's a stretch for me to think this, that the main motivation is intelligence gathering. And that they're pretty much using the people. Though that is kind of to be expected with the military. But I'm hoping that the relationship will be mutually beneficial. If the military is in fact using the villagers for intelligence, in turn, they should help the villagers out -- actually bring that irrigation system; don't just hear they need an irrigation system and then do nothing about it. If you actually take into account these villagers concerns and do something about it, that's the kind of alliance-building you need in order to be successful in Afghanistan (ask Greg Mortenson).