Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
FNC
November 12, 2008
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: Know thy enemy is one of the oldest of military dicta. American forces are working on a variation of that in Iraq, trying to learn more about the people whose country they occupy and it is scientists, not soldiers, who are on these frontlines.
Reporter David Mac Dougall has the story.
DAVID MAC DOUGALL: Five years after the invasion comes a tacit acceptance that mission-focused American troops haven’t been able to devote enough time to simply getting to know the locals. The U.S. military is expanding a program in Iraq to send teams of anthropologists and social scientists across the country, acting as cultural analysts for U.S. forces.
“NANCY” [Anthropologist]: So we go out to the villages, into the cities and talk to the Iraqis, get an idea of their perceptions, their feelings, basically what they’re thinking about their culture and then we take that back to the military so they have a better understanding of the local population.
MAC DOUGALL: The program, though, is not without its critics. Some scholars are alarmed that anthropologists could be gathering information, which is then used by the military in lethal operations, a practice used during the Vietnam War, but later abandoned after public outcry.
Nancy and her co-worker Jean are concerned enough about their professional reputations that they requested we don’t fully identify them.
So much information is gathered about Iraqi men that U.S. commanders really know very little about the lives and concerns of women in this area. And there’s where the anthropologists’ expertise is vital – improving the flow of cultural intel, allowing the military to paint a clearer picture of the social landscape.
At first, the women in Kawaz-Arab are reluctant to come forward. Slowly, but surely Nancy and Jean plan to gain their trust, with repeat visits in the coming weeks, but there have already been successes.
“JEAN” [Anthropologist]: I never would have thought that I’d be sitting in a room filled with 20 Arab women and children and they’d be telling me intimate parts of their lives, how they live, how they love, how they mourn.
MAC DOUGALL: On the ground, U.S. commanders tell us they value the anthropologists’ input, but in reality many of the soldiers have more experience in Iraq than the social science teams. While the practice of deploying anthropologists is still considered counterinsurgency, commanders here say their information is not being used for traditional kinetic military fighting. Anthropologists like Jean and Nancy are able to bring a uniquely humanist touch to understanding Iraqis and that helps recast the U.S. military as more approachable in the minds of Iraqis they meet.
In Kawaz-Arab, Iraq, David Mac Dougall, Fox News.
November 12, 2008
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: Know thy enemy is one of the oldest of military dicta. American forces are working on a variation of that in Iraq, trying to learn more about the people whose country they occupy and it is scientists, not soldiers, who are on these frontlines.
Reporter David Mac Dougall has the story.
DAVID MAC DOUGALL: Five years after the invasion comes a tacit acceptance that mission-focused American troops haven’t been able to devote enough time to simply getting to know the locals. The U.S. military is expanding a program in Iraq to send teams of anthropologists and social scientists across the country, acting as cultural analysts for U.S. forces.
“NANCY” [Anthropologist]: So we go out to the villages, into the cities and talk to the Iraqis, get an idea of their perceptions, their feelings, basically what they’re thinking about their culture and then we take that back to the military so they have a better understanding of the local population.
MAC DOUGALL: The program, though, is not without its critics. Some scholars are alarmed that anthropologists could be gathering information, which is then used by the military in lethal operations, a practice used during the Vietnam War, but later abandoned after public outcry.
Nancy and her co-worker Jean are concerned enough about their professional reputations that they requested we don’t fully identify them.
So much information is gathered about Iraqi men that U.S. commanders really know very little about the lives and concerns of women in this area. And there’s where the anthropologists’ expertise is vital – improving the flow of cultural intel, allowing the military to paint a clearer picture of the social landscape.
At first, the women in Kawaz-Arab are reluctant to come forward. Slowly, but surely Nancy and Jean plan to gain their trust, with repeat visits in the coming weeks, but there have already been successes.
“JEAN” [Anthropologist]: I never would have thought that I’d be sitting in a room filled with 20 Arab women and children and they’d be telling me intimate parts of their lives, how they live, how they love, how they mourn.
MAC DOUGALL: On the ground, U.S. commanders tell us they value the anthropologists’ input, but in reality many of the soldiers have more experience in Iraq than the social science teams. While the practice of deploying anthropologists is still considered counterinsurgency, commanders here say their information is not being used for traditional kinetic military fighting. Anthropologists like Jean and Nancy are able to bring a uniquely humanist touch to understanding Iraqis and that helps recast the U.S. military as more approachable in the minds of Iraqis they meet.
In Kawaz-Arab, Iraq, David Mac Dougall, Fox News.