Army Sailor -- War in the Sandbox...
The Adventures of a Sailor in Afghanistan...

I got a lot of good feedback from part one of my series "What Americans need to understand about Afghanistan". One of my regular readers 'Zelma' left a comment on the entry that I think flows well into my next installment in the series, which deals with Civil Affairs.

Zelma writes:

I appreciate the reality that everyone wants to feel like they are doing the right thing, and making a difference in a positive way. However, I have become quite frustrated and astounded at the perception that the military is the correct instrument for social betterment in a war-ravaged country. There are a host of organizations, NGO and otherwise that are hugely successful in rebuilding local economies. They are professional, effective, and expert at seamlessly blending modern innovation and traditional ways. They operate on shoestring budgets, and are accountable for every penny. A huge percent of the work is volunteer. Many are completely donor funded. The workers receive no protection or recognition from the U.S. government. They address the needs and issues nobody wants to handle: hunger, soil erosion, infant mortality/maternal morbidity, AIDS, child marriage...the list goes on. The locals they work with are usually the first against the wall when things get shitty, because those people help empower other people.

Would you agree that members of the military, are, first and foremost, military? WHAT DOES A SOLDIER DO IN A VILLAGE WHERE THE GIRL CHILDREN ARE UNDERGOING GENITAL MUTILATION? HOW DOES A SOLDIER TEACH A FARMER HOW TO GROW CROPS IN A DROUGHT? TEACH A MOTHER TO SPACE PREGNANCIES WITHOUT GETTING CAUGHT AND BEATEN TO DEATH BY HER HUSBAND? TEACH A MAN THAT THROWING ACID AT A WOMAN WHEN YOU'RE ANGRY IS WRONG? BUILD A STOVE THAT USES HEAT FROM THE SUN? Please forgive me for screaming. I feel like I'm shoveling sand against the tide, and I am no longer young and resilient.

Do us a favor and check-out World Neighbors,Doctors Without Borders, International Relief Committee, Madre, Human Rights Watch, WWF... there are plenty of ways to bust your ass and not get recognition. Most if not all of these NGOs had a presence in Afghanistan, even under the Taliban.

You sound critical of the media, and yes, the mainstream is pretty poor. Most of it is profit driven. If you want real information, you need to look for it. It doesn't flow from the TV screen. It's not going to be spooned to you. You can learn to sniff out and link information. It's a lot of work, but worthwhile. If your friends won't wake-up, add new ones. Keep growing.

I hope at least part of this made sense.

All the best to you!

Zelma makes a lot of good points, and she nicely brings up a lot of the concerns that civilians often have. I have to admit that before I deployed as a part of a Civil Affairs unit myself, I was also very skeptical of the Civil Affairs mission. But I have become a believer.

The first thing to understand about Civil Affairs is that it is 90% reservists. These aren't your normal reservists (who we on active duty often like to make fun of), these are highly trained specialists, each with a unique set of skills they bring with them from their civilian jobs. They are doctors, lawyers, civil engineers, city planners, city managers, teachers, nurses, police officers, etceteras. Civil Affairs teams offer these highly trained individuals the opportunity to operate in their own areas of expertise. Police Officers train Afghan Police, Doctors & Nurses provide medical treatment, teachers train Afghan teachers, civil engineers and city planners work together to rebuild and improve towns and villages, city managers help establish effective government. The system can work.

So what does a soldier do in a village where children are undergoing genital mutilation? The soldier can evacuate those children and their mothers to a proper medical facility, and incarcerate those who are mutilating them. How does a soldier help a farmer through a drought? By teaching the farmer new skills, crop rotation, and providing better irrigation. The fact is that these citizen soldiers can do anything that needs to be done in any region around the world. That is why they play such a crucial part of the Special Operations team.

Now don't get me wrong... NGO's (Non-Governmental Organizations) do play a valuable role in reconstruction. But how can they operate in a non-permissible environment? NGO's are often rendered ineffectual in an active war-zone. Civil Affairs paves their way. Civil Affairs helps make an area ready to receive assistance from NGO's. The primary purpose of Civil Affairs is to stabilize a region enough in order for the main body of the military to be able to leave. The primary mission of Civil Affairs is to "Secure the Victory".

I have very good friends who are in the Peace Corps, Doctors without Borders, Nurses without Borders and Geeks without Borders. All of these are important, valuable organizations. But non of them can be effective in a region where they are in severe mortal danger.

I agree that the primary purpose of the Military is to do "Military stuff", however, I believe that Civil Affairs plays an important role in transitioning from the Military mission, to the purely reconstruction mission.

The preview...

For a more in-depth explanation from members of the 321st Civil Affairs Brigade (the higher element to the 405th Civil Affairs Battalion), please CLICK HERE

I think both videos are well put together and nicely explain our mission, and it's importance.

I get a lot of questions about what it is like to drive through Afghanistan, so I decided to post this video... It's a good example of a pretty typical trip in a soft-skin SUV. Soft skin SUVs do not offer armor protection, but they are a hell of a lot less conspicuous. Humvees are bullet magnets...

The video may be a little dull, but dull is good... You can easily survive dull.

Since I have been home it has dawned on me that many Americans are not really sure what is going on in Afghanistan. Some seem to only be vaguely aware that we are still fighting a war there. I find this rather astonishing since I sincerely feel that our efforts in Afghanistan will play a vital role in dictating the future of the entire region. So I have decided to write a multi-part piece detailing specifics of what I feel people must understand about Afghanistan.

The natural place to start with such a project would be the history of the region. But I will get to that at a later time. With this first article, I want to discuss a vital part of modern warfare that I think few people are aware of, Information Operations (IO), and how crucial the "IO Campaign" is to the war effort.

First off, I will point out that modern-day Information Operations serves as a great example of the U.S. Military mis-using it's own terminology. What Information Operations is supposed to mean is a combination of Information Security (INFOSEC), and network-based warfare (CyberWarfare), neither of which I will be discussing. However, it has taken on a second, more prominent meaning in the modern battle-space. It is now virtually synonymous with "Public Relations".

Basically, the IO campaign involves developing the public view of the war, at home, abroad, and in the effected region (in this case, Afghanistan). An IO campaign can have many purposes. It helps make the local populace aware of all the positive work Coalition Forces are doing in their country. Many Afghans only see the negative aspects of the war, the killing and the fighting, a good IO campaign makes them aware of the schools being built, and the medical care being provided, along with countless other humanitarian efforts being made. The IO Campaign also helps the local populace realize that the Coalition can do far more to help them when we are operating in a permissible environment. This encourages the locals to rally support for the Coalition, and for the re-building of their country, which helps further legitimize their young government.

Of course, the enemy have an IO Campaign of their own. Theirs works a little differently, because they are not doing any positive work in the Country. Their IO Campaign works with scare tactics, and by creating a division between locals and the Coalition. They work hard to accentuate the bad things that happen in the war, and they have no qualms trying to fabricate news about bad events that never happened. Their IO Campaign includes such tactics as broadcasting the beheading of prisoners, and videos of suicide bombers portrayed as martyrs. They focus on instilling fear in the local populace, and planting doubt in the minds of Americans, and other Coalition Nation citizens.

Sadly, the news media often does more to help the enemy's IO Campaign than to help our own. There is plenty of positive news to be reported in Afghanistan. U.S. and Coalition forces help thousands of Afghans everyday, providing food, jobs, education, healthcare and much more. But we don't often hear about any of that. Too often we only hear about the IEDs, and bombings. That is, if we hear about Afghanistan at all. Apparently, positive efforts make for poor prime-time news...

I think it is absolutely critical that Americans take the time to do a little research about what is actually going on in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a beautiful country, with a remarkable population, and it can be a strong, viable, contributing member of the global village. But it needs a little help. It is important that we remember that Afghans and Afghanistan are not our enemies, terrorists are. We must not allow ourselves to forget that we are involved in important, ongoing operations in Afghanistan, and we must not allow the enemy or the modern news media to lead us to being disillusioned or weary.

Too often I hear people talk about Afghanistan as if it were Iraq. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Afghanistan is a nation with a clear path to success, so long as we do not flounder in our support of their rebuilding. We are all subject to the IO Campaign, it is our responsibility as citizens to inform ourselves of what is really going on, and to avail ourselves of the democratic process.