It's something like this:
Posted on 07/26/2012 7:35:55 PM PDT by robowombat
For Air Force Lt. Col. Sarah Cleveland, reaching out to Afghan women sometimes meant 10-day trips to remote villages. It meant eating the local delicacy of fried sheep rump fat and letting women and girls paint her face with their traditional blue eyeliner.
But mostly it meant directing 17 teams of women fanned out across Afghanistan as the officer in charge of the first formal class of cultural support teams. The all-female groups of service members help Army special operations forces engage with women and girls in Afghan villages.
The experience working in remote villages was a far cry from her recent assignments for U.S. Special Operations Command. A 16-year veteran, Cleveland had spent two years traveling around the world, setting up secure communications systems for operators in the field, before she was assigned to the command's protocol office in 2010.
"I was like Private Benjamin," says Cleveland, 43. "I became a very good wedding planner. Those weddings were the commanders' conferences. All the commanders in (special operations forces) would descend on Socom every six to eight weeks, and they would brief on what's new and cool."
* * * * * The Socom commander at the time, now-retired Adm. Eric Olson, saw that troops were not reaching village women and created cultural support teams. The idea was that the teams would help break down barriers in places where women often are not allowed to interact with men who are not their family. ......But hearing that the command was ramping up its outreach efforts to women, Cleveland jumped at the opportunity to apply and leave the comforts of Tampa for a more spartan life.
On May 1, 2011, the day before Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, Cleveland learned she had been accepted.
Training was the first cultural shock.
(Excerpt) Read more at 2.tbo.com ...
Is this a joke?
Unfortunately not. Read the entire article , it is fascinating.
Excellent article. And no, to Ashely White’s family, no joke at all.
One cannot help suspecting that “winning hearts and minds” is working about as well in Afghanistan as it did in Vietnam.
Soldiers are meant to kill people and break things, and not to engage in public relations.
At some point, perhaps, the government and its personnel will come to realize that not everyone wants to “become American.”
At the very least, that will release an enormous amount of money and great numbers of troops for combat.
No offense, but wtf is the army doing with “cultural support teams”?!?!
Jesus, help us. We are so effed up down here.
Mata Hari
When she was stationed early on in Balad, Iraq, my daughter talked herself into being part of a visit into nearby towns. She’s almost 6’ tall and looks good in her helmet and her rifle slung over her shoulder with a gaggle of children surrounding her, all wreathed in radiant smiles.
Wish it were always that easy.
It's something like this:
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