Posted on 08/04/2007 6:19:44 PM PDT by Clive
How do you win hearts and minds?
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Project Number: 07-649
KINGSTON, Ontario — The Canadian Land Force Doctrine and Training System (LFDTS) recently partnered with Queens University, the Queens Centre for International Relations and the US Army War College to host an international conference that brought together representatives of government, the military, international institutions and universities. The goal: ready government officials and military commanders on how to execute successful stability campaigns.
Major-General Stuart Beare said “We’re having the dialogue on what is stability or instability, what’s required to create stability and who is required to be involved in getting that done, not just the boots on ground, but back home on the home front in terms of policy, preparation of our forces civil, military and other wise, and how we work and operate together to get the job done”
In almost every theatre that CF personnel have participated in over the last two decades, some level of stability campaign was required, and we continue to learn and improve on techniques to assist with this vital part of any operation.
In today’s conflicts, to have a successful outcome, the military has learned that we must work closely with police, government, and humanitarian organizations. As well, the creation of Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) in Afghanistan help liase with the local townspeople to ensure that infrastructure such as wells and schools are built.
So important are stability campaigns that the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre (CMTC) at CFB Wainright, Alberta has included training for soldiers that will fill the role of PRT’s and Civil- Military Cooperation (CIMIC).
“At CMTC our PRT’s play out the roles that they play in theatre” stated Beare, “What we’re missing though is the robust representation of our 3D actors that are there with us. They are law enforcement, our judiciary, our governance and our development organizations. They are so focused on the mission themselves, they’ve been unable create the space to be with us before the operations.”
Conferences like this one will only improve the stability of failing and failed states for current and future missions. Added MGen Beare, “At the end of the day, we are in competition for the people that live in those places.”
The problem, MGen Beare pointed out, is that the insurgents are also competing for the people, and there is more than one way to deal with the problem. You can take them head on, or you can take them head on, and indirectly, by actually building within the people themselves a desire for something better and the desire for those people to protect that change.
Article by Sergeant Marco Comisso
Photos by Corporal Dan Pop
Children from the Sayad Pacha village use a water pump that was funded by the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team’s Civilian Military Cooperation (CIMIC) section.
I am waiting for someone to trot out Chuck Colson’s famous saying,
Ironically, by not giving a damn if you win them.
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You mean, “get ‘em by the b@11$ and their hearts and minds will follow”?
Road Map for Moderate Network Building in the Muslim World (long read)
RAND Corp. ^ | Angel Rabasa, Cheryl Benard, Lowell H. Schwartz, Peter Sickle
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1818382/posts
Bolstering Moderate Muslims
DanielPipes.org ^ | 4/17/07 | Daniel Pipes
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1819926/posts
Either that, or spend lots of time and money actually understanding them, and what makes them tick, and what their grievances are, and prove yourself worthy of their trust.
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