thedrifter
07-03-06, 07:32 AM
U.S. soldiers practicing tea, with a bit of empathy
Troops from Texas training for Iraq with attitudes, ideas
12:00 AM CDT on Monday, July 3, 2006
By GRETEL C. KOVACH / The Dallas Morning News
FORT POLK, La. – The meeting with the sheik started well enough. Hands were clasped, tea poured.
"How are the children?" Maj. Elbert Valentine, 38, inquired politely as the U.S. Army officers gathered around a rose-colored carpet.
But the man in the billowing white headdress didn't want to chat about soccer this time. He wanted to talk about Haditha.
"We refuse your presence in our village at all," he said, staring coldly at his guests.
A hidden camera captured this simulated encounter on a cinema-quality set in the forests of south-central Louisiana. Here at the Army's new "engagement university," Texas troops have been practicing the art of making friends and influencing potential insurgents.
Troops are being trained in "culture-centric warfare," negotiation and public relations – weapons that the Army says are sometimes more effective than rifle fire in a counterinsurgency campaign.
"We're not going to win this with guns anymore. You're going to win with ideas and attitudes," said Lt. Col. Kurt Pinkerton, 40, of Harker Heights, Texas, the new 2/5 Battalion commander with the 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas.
The change in tactics is evident at Fort Polk, one of two combat training bases in the U.S. that soldiers visit before heading overseas.
Two brigades from the Texas division camped there in May and June on monthlong rotations at the Joint Readiness Training Center, where troops do more gabbing and less gunning these days.
Establishing good will
The room was dim with curtains drawn. The glasses of tea were growing cold.
"Accidents have happened here, the people are enraged," the sheik said.
The American officers had rehearsed until 1 a.m. the night before, silhouetted in the bright light of their tactical operations center. They awoke before dawn and huddled before the meeting around the hood of a Humvee, setting the parameters of their upcoming quid pro quo.
They could offer the tribe medical care and additional compensation for wounded civilians, clean water and jobs with the Iraqi police force. In return, they hoped to gain good will, and eventually, intelligence on insurgent activity.
But the mention of Haditha caught them off guard. If there was a civilian massacre, it involved Marines, not the Army. And whatever happened, it took place last year in another part of the country.
Maj. Valentine leaned in to confer with the Iraq war veteran in his entourage, Maj. Pete Andrysiak, 39, of Austin, deputy commander of the "Ironhorse" 1st brigade.
"Sheik, you are a very powerful and respected person in the community," said Maj. Andrysiak, resuming the negotiations. "You yield the power to calm the people."
Across the building, Lt. Col. Dennis Smith watched the exchange on a row of monitors. As head of the facility that opened in April, he can observe as many as four different groups negotiating at once.
When the Iraqi tribal leader complained that people in his village needed clean water, Col. Smith urged the officers to "build a well!" though he knew they couldn't hear him.
Amid the fervent clicking of the sheik's prayer beads, Maj. Valentine and his team tried to remember all they'd learned:
Too much empathy is seen as weakness, not enough as callousness. Don't mention your family dog. Don't make empty promises.
The sheik wanted a public apology and the end of American patrols. Eventually, they compromised – U.S. soldiers would patrol alongside Iraqi forces.
"If we cannot identify the insurgents in your town, it will be devastating to the children in your community," Maj. Valentine reminded him.
"The hearts of our people will not be safe," the sheik conceded. "God willing, if we have that information, we would be willing to bring it to you."
Earning trust
Take the tea, even if you aren't thirsty, a mustachioed Jordanian officer had advised a crowded auditorium of 1st Cavalry Division troopers last month. "Accept it and put it on the table."
His lecture was one in a series of talks at Fort Polk from Middle Eastern cultural advisers, including a famous Iraqi television actor and a Palestinian woman who settled in Arlington.
American soldiers should view culture as a minefield – dangerous ground that must be navigated with caution, understanding and respect, the visiting officer said, reading from the draft of a new Army cultural awareness handbook on Iraq.
Lt. Col. Joe Connell, head of the cultural training program at Fort Polk, put it this way: "If you had a foreign nation with a base in your hometown that didn't care about your culture or customs, how long would it be until you put an IED [improvised explosive device] in the road?"
It will be particularly difficult in Iraq, a country trampled by invaders for centuries, to earn their trust, the soldiers were told.
"They are a proud people, very proud. Just like us," observed Maj. John Garcia, an information operations specialist.
To win over the fence sitters and marginalize the car bombers, the soldiers might renovate a mosque one day and raid a home the next, said Brig. Gen. Michael D. Barbero, 50, Fort Polk's commanding general.
"You're trying to pull the right lever at the right time. It's a balancing act," he said.
This used to be called winning hearts and minds. The U.S. military hasn't done enough of it, says British general Nigel Aylwin-Foster, who served with the Americans in Iraq. He has characterized his American counterparts as culturally inept nice guys who inadvertently offended many of the Iraqi people they came to help.
Now, U.S. forces intimately acquainted with the geography of Iraq, from the verdant northern highlands to the sunbaked desert plains, are pushing like never before to understand the human terrain.
A new counterinsurgency manual for the Army and Marine Corps is due this summer. At Taji, a base north of Baghdad, incoming officers learn counterinsurgency tactics from their veteran peers, who urge them to study Iraqi customs and language.
At Fort Polk, troops maneuver through a battlefield of 18 villages crowded with Iraqi soldiers, civilians and insurgents. They must discern the difference between a crowd of political protesters and a mob ready to attack, or suffer the consequences.
At night, the Texas officers traded dog-eared copies of Lawrence of Arabia's biography, Mao Tse-Tung's On Guerrilla Warfare and other counterinsurgency classics.
Many had already served on yearlong deployments to Iraq. But in the last eight months, contractors drilled them at Fort Hood on the complexities of Iraqi language, history, religion and politics.
Critics say it may be too late for the U.S. military to get smart about counterinsurgency in Iraq. But this will not be the last guerrilla threat the U.S. military will face, Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., predicted in the January-February edition of Military Review.
"The insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan were not, in truth, the wars for which we were best prepared in 2001; however, they are the wars we are fighting and they clearly are the kind of wars we must master," he wrote.
After the sheik accepted the officers' gift, a box of Islamic halal meals, a military observer pulled aside a curtain to reveal a marker board for their critique.
The officers should have expressed more concern over the deaths in Haditha and dropped the poker face to appeal to the Iraqis' emotional nature. But overall, they were commended for hitting the cultural points well.
Showing concern
"Show a little sorrow, as a father, so they know we care about them. It's not just all business," added Ali Ahmad, one of the Iraqi advisers who analyzed the exchange.
Maj. Andrysiak had negotiated with many sheiks during his last deployment to Iraq. It is a perishable skill, he said, and he had much to learn.
"You need to be aware of the bigger picture in the Middle East," he said. "History is important to them, I just have to acknowledge that."
There are no real mistakes at the engagement university, only learning opportunities. The same won't be true in Iraq.
As 1st Brigade returned to Fort Hood last week, the Pentagon announced that two more combat brigades and the headquarters from their division would be sent back to Iraq later this year, following on the heels of the air brigade.
The Ironhorse brigade wasn't on the list. But it's only a matter of time, said Sgt. 1st Class Brian Olson, 35. "We'll be going, eventually."
E-mail gkovach@dallasnews.com
Ellie
Troops from Texas training for Iraq with attitudes, ideas
12:00 AM CDT on Monday, July 3, 2006
By GRETEL C. KOVACH / The Dallas Morning News
FORT POLK, La. – The meeting with the sheik started well enough. Hands were clasped, tea poured.
"How are the children?" Maj. Elbert Valentine, 38, inquired politely as the U.S. Army officers gathered around a rose-colored carpet.
But the man in the billowing white headdress didn't want to chat about soccer this time. He wanted to talk about Haditha.
"We refuse your presence in our village at all," he said, staring coldly at his guests.
A hidden camera captured this simulated encounter on a cinema-quality set in the forests of south-central Louisiana. Here at the Army's new "engagement university," Texas troops have been practicing the art of making friends and influencing potential insurgents.
Troops are being trained in "culture-centric warfare," negotiation and public relations – weapons that the Army says are sometimes more effective than rifle fire in a counterinsurgency campaign.
"We're not going to win this with guns anymore. You're going to win with ideas and attitudes," said Lt. Col. Kurt Pinkerton, 40, of Harker Heights, Texas, the new 2/5 Battalion commander with the 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas.
The change in tactics is evident at Fort Polk, one of two combat training bases in the U.S. that soldiers visit before heading overseas.
Two brigades from the Texas division camped there in May and June on monthlong rotations at the Joint Readiness Training Center, where troops do more gabbing and less gunning these days.
Establishing good will
The room was dim with curtains drawn. The glasses of tea were growing cold.
"Accidents have happened here, the people are enraged," the sheik said.
The American officers had rehearsed until 1 a.m. the night before, silhouetted in the bright light of their tactical operations center. They awoke before dawn and huddled before the meeting around the hood of a Humvee, setting the parameters of their upcoming quid pro quo.
They could offer the tribe medical care and additional compensation for wounded civilians, clean water and jobs with the Iraqi police force. In return, they hoped to gain good will, and eventually, intelligence on insurgent activity.
But the mention of Haditha caught them off guard. If there was a civilian massacre, it involved Marines, not the Army. And whatever happened, it took place last year in another part of the country.
Maj. Valentine leaned in to confer with the Iraq war veteran in his entourage, Maj. Pete Andrysiak, 39, of Austin, deputy commander of the "Ironhorse" 1st brigade.
"Sheik, you are a very powerful and respected person in the community," said Maj. Andrysiak, resuming the negotiations. "You yield the power to calm the people."
Across the building, Lt. Col. Dennis Smith watched the exchange on a row of monitors. As head of the facility that opened in April, he can observe as many as four different groups negotiating at once.
When the Iraqi tribal leader complained that people in his village needed clean water, Col. Smith urged the officers to "build a well!" though he knew they couldn't hear him.
Amid the fervent clicking of the sheik's prayer beads, Maj. Valentine and his team tried to remember all they'd learned:
Too much empathy is seen as weakness, not enough as callousness. Don't mention your family dog. Don't make empty promises.
The sheik wanted a public apology and the end of American patrols. Eventually, they compromised – U.S. soldiers would patrol alongside Iraqi forces.
"If we cannot identify the insurgents in your town, it will be devastating to the children in your community," Maj. Valentine reminded him.
"The hearts of our people will not be safe," the sheik conceded. "God willing, if we have that information, we would be willing to bring it to you."
Earning trust
Take the tea, even if you aren't thirsty, a mustachioed Jordanian officer had advised a crowded auditorium of 1st Cavalry Division troopers last month. "Accept it and put it on the table."
His lecture was one in a series of talks at Fort Polk from Middle Eastern cultural advisers, including a famous Iraqi television actor and a Palestinian woman who settled in Arlington.
American soldiers should view culture as a minefield – dangerous ground that must be navigated with caution, understanding and respect, the visiting officer said, reading from the draft of a new Army cultural awareness handbook on Iraq.
Lt. Col. Joe Connell, head of the cultural training program at Fort Polk, put it this way: "If you had a foreign nation with a base in your hometown that didn't care about your culture or customs, how long would it be until you put an IED [improvised explosive device] in the road?"
It will be particularly difficult in Iraq, a country trampled by invaders for centuries, to earn their trust, the soldiers were told.
"They are a proud people, very proud. Just like us," observed Maj. John Garcia, an information operations specialist.
To win over the fence sitters and marginalize the car bombers, the soldiers might renovate a mosque one day and raid a home the next, said Brig. Gen. Michael D. Barbero, 50, Fort Polk's commanding general.
"You're trying to pull the right lever at the right time. It's a balancing act," he said.
This used to be called winning hearts and minds. The U.S. military hasn't done enough of it, says British general Nigel Aylwin-Foster, who served with the Americans in Iraq. He has characterized his American counterparts as culturally inept nice guys who inadvertently offended many of the Iraqi people they came to help.
Now, U.S. forces intimately acquainted with the geography of Iraq, from the verdant northern highlands to the sunbaked desert plains, are pushing like never before to understand the human terrain.
A new counterinsurgency manual for the Army and Marine Corps is due this summer. At Taji, a base north of Baghdad, incoming officers learn counterinsurgency tactics from their veteran peers, who urge them to study Iraqi customs and language.
At Fort Polk, troops maneuver through a battlefield of 18 villages crowded with Iraqi soldiers, civilians and insurgents. They must discern the difference between a crowd of political protesters and a mob ready to attack, or suffer the consequences.
At night, the Texas officers traded dog-eared copies of Lawrence of Arabia's biography, Mao Tse-Tung's On Guerrilla Warfare and other counterinsurgency classics.
Many had already served on yearlong deployments to Iraq. But in the last eight months, contractors drilled them at Fort Hood on the complexities of Iraqi language, history, religion and politics.
Critics say it may be too late for the U.S. military to get smart about counterinsurgency in Iraq. But this will not be the last guerrilla threat the U.S. military will face, Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., predicted in the January-February edition of Military Review.
"The insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan were not, in truth, the wars for which we were best prepared in 2001; however, they are the wars we are fighting and they clearly are the kind of wars we must master," he wrote.
After the sheik accepted the officers' gift, a box of Islamic halal meals, a military observer pulled aside a curtain to reveal a marker board for their critique.
The officers should have expressed more concern over the deaths in Haditha and dropped the poker face to appeal to the Iraqis' emotional nature. But overall, they were commended for hitting the cultural points well.
Showing concern
"Show a little sorrow, as a father, so they know we care about them. It's not just all business," added Ali Ahmad, one of the Iraqi advisers who analyzed the exchange.
Maj. Andrysiak had negotiated with many sheiks during his last deployment to Iraq. It is a perishable skill, he said, and he had much to learn.
"You need to be aware of the bigger picture in the Middle East," he said. "History is important to them, I just have to acknowledge that."
There are no real mistakes at the engagement university, only learning opportunities. The same won't be true in Iraq.
As 1st Brigade returned to Fort Hood last week, the Pentagon announced that two more combat brigades and the headquarters from their division would be sent back to Iraq later this year, following on the heels of the air brigade.
The Ironhorse brigade wasn't on the list. But it's only a matter of time, said Sgt. 1st Class Brian Olson, 35. "We'll be going, eventually."
E-mail gkovach@dallasnews.com
Ellie