William S. McCallister is a retired military officer. While on active duty, Mr. McCallister served in various infantry and special operations assignments specializing in civil-military, psychological and information operations. He has worked extensively in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
ONE TRIBE AT A TIME
The Full Document at last!
By Steven Pressfield | Published: October 29, 2009
Download Major Jim Gant’s “One Tribe At A Time” to your computer, or view it right now.
[Because of the extraordinary response to Maj. Jim Gant's paper, One Tribe At A Time, I've decided to leave it up all week in the "Number One Slot." My ongoing interview with Chief Ajmal Khan Zazai will pick again next Friday; the Chief has been in Kabul all week, meeting with U.S. and British commanders, and we haven't had time to speak. So all's well that ends well!]
The downloadable and open-able .pdf of One Tribe is here, on the right. On a personal note, let me say again that I consider it a privilege to offer this document in full, not only because of my great respect for Maj. Jim Gant, who has lived and breathed this Tribal Engagement idea for years, but for the piece itself and for the influence it is already having within the U.S. military and policymaking community.
One Tribe At A Time is by no means a super-pro Beltway think tank piece. What it is, in my opinion, is an idea whose time has come, put forward by an officer who has lived it in the field with his Special Forces team members–and proved it can be done. And an officer, by the way, who is ready this instant to climb aboard a helicopter to go back to Afghanistan and do it again.
Questions and comments
At the moment, Maj. Gant is at Fort Polk, Louisiana, getting ready to deploy to Iraq, where he will lead an Iraqi commando battalion. He’ll be available in the meantime, however (depending of course upon time demands), to answer questions or take criticisms. Just respond in the comments section below. And I myself have further thoughts I’d like to offer on this subject in the coming weeks.
Here’s a quick one:
The most common response I anticipate to the Tribal Engagement concept (and it’s a valid criticism, shared by Maj. Gant) will go something like this: “Yeah, this is a great idea–but where are we going to find the men to implement it?”
Men for the job
Tribal Engagement Team members, should this concept be adopted, would be called upon to commit for multiple tours under the loneliest, harshest and most hazardous conditions imaginable. To succeed with the tribe they are assigned to, they would have to demonstrate impeccable combat credentials and, even rarer, possess the “people skills” to establish and maintain rapport across a cultural chasm—Western to Tribal Afghan—that has defeated every outside entity from Alexander the Great to the British and the Soviets. The task would be extraordinarily difficult, dirty and dangerous, and in the end would almost certainly be rewarded neither by career advancement (because the enterprise would be unprecedented and outside the normal channels of military promotion) nor by recognition from the public at large, who in all probability will rarely hear of it and wouldn’t understand or appreciate it if they did.
How can we identify and attract such men?
Do you remember this tiny, three-line ad from the London Times, December 29, 1913?
Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honour and recognition in case of success.
5000 volunteers queued up in response to this advertisement, posted by Ernest Shackleton seeking crewmen for his Antarctic expedition.
I may be wrong, but I don’t think our young American warriors would respond with any less enthusiasm than their British cousins did a century ago to a similar call. Do you?
Again, many thanks to Maj. Jim Gant for writing One Tribe At A Time, to Printer Bowler for designing and editing the .pdf and to Callie Oettinger for managing the outreach. I’m proud to put this document in circulation with as much reach as this modest blog can offer. We all hope it proves of interest and of use.
Steven,
Thanks for posting this! I look forward to reading MAJ Gant’s full paper. I’m sure it will reach all the right people…
Shamus
Major Gant’s experience reminds me the Jesuits’ work in their South American Missions in the 17th and 18th centuries. With a deep cultural and spiritual empathy, the Jesuits laid a highly succesful strategy not only to catechise the Guaraní Indians, but also to give them new economic development opportunities and even creating an Indian militia to fought the Bandeirantes (Portuguese slave traders).
Although Major Gant does not use the word empathy in his document, I feel there is a deep empathy with the tribesmen in his work in Afghanistan. If possible, I would like him to share some reflections on this.
Congratulations to Major Gant, and many thanks to Steven Pressfield for sharing the document .
R. Camacho,
Thank you very much for reading the blog and the paper. First, although by far the most important and hardest part of this strategy (or any strategy that involves working with indigenous forces) I do not touch on it in the paper in any detail. That subject, by itself, is another paper or even book…I am very impressed that you picked up on the most critical piece of the equation…In a nutshell here is what I believe about “building rapport”.
Rapport equals Relationship.
In order to build a true relationship in this type of scenario (and thousands of soldiers((from PFC to General)) have been doing this extremely well for many years now) one must have very good inter-personal skills, intelligence, good experience (notice I say ‘good” because all experience is not ‘good’), technical and tactical competence, patience, sincerity, true self-awareness, but most important of all is EMPATHY.
One must be able to put themselves in someone else’s position. See what they see. Feel what they feel. With this empathy and a little perspective – everything changes. I, however, also believe that the ability to do this is a God given gift, much like leadership. Although through professional development, reading, training and hard work one can become “better” at building rapport or being a leader, I believe the ones who are great at either are born with a lot of the necessary attributes. But yes, you are 100% correct, without empathy, one can have everything else and they will fail.
Once again thank you for writing and reading the blog.
Take care.
STRENGTH AND HONOR
Jim Gant
Two takeaways I especially enjoyed:
The bamboo plant analogy.
The TET concept.
At first, I thought this was going to be “just another COIN” document. It isn’t. It is essentially a demand for a tribal equivalent to the Embedded Training Team. Of course there arn’t enough SF to go around to do this, so it will require yet another shift in our soldiers and Marines’ thinking.
I enjoyed the read.
The bottom line on page P43 says it all.
I don’t believe that it will that difficult to find the troops to fill the TETs: certainly Canada, the US and the UK now have something we all lacked ten years ago and that is a current generation of combat-experienced troops: those with the skills and attributes for a TET should be easy enough to identify. While commanders may resist losing some of their best to the TETs, in terms of the long game, this is something we must do – much the same way as artillery units have been reroled to fill the need for CIMIC.
Very great thanks to Steven Pressfield and MAJ Gant for sharing this pivotal document with us.
Great post!!
Steve/Jim,
Grewat post as always
While I have no doubt that we can find such men (an women to as the situation requires); I think you all underestimate the institutional obstacles that need to be overcome before the first dude sets foot in a tribal area.
How are you going to ensure that these TET experts are relevant in a system where long term engagement is measured in one 12-15 month rotation for conventional forces and a 5-7 month rotation for SOF. Currently, it is pretty much make the metrics (i.e. EKIA, EWIA, Detainees, and a few MEDCAPs sprinkled in for good measure) over your rotation; or suffer at the hands of higher HQs that measure success to the tune of “on with the body count” or how well they “protected the force” (never mind that neither is going to do what needs to be done (WIN THE WAR(s)).
With the current paradigm; a guy assigned to a TET for 3 years would see (or not see if the higher HQ doesn’t deploy) 3 x Company Commanders and 2+ x battalion commanders over the course of the 3 year tour. And oh yea, that doesn’t even count the unsynched conventional battlespace owner rotations (with US conventional commanders or NATO counterparts in the case of Afghanistan) swapping out as least as often as SOF higher HQs. How about the whole deal for unity and continuity of command!?!
We talk persistent presence and enduring engagement, but the personnel system is just not set up to support it. Without even factoring overseas contingency operations in two major operational areas and about a half a dozen minor ones (the artist formerly known as GWOT); the DOD personnel system introduces so much turbulence that you would need to set up a completely unique personnel system to support TET. New service? Maybe.
Bottom Line Regardless:
For it to work, we need to tell dude signing up for TET on day one that the endstate is to WIN THE WAR(s)!
- Not redeploying with all men, weapons and equipment at a set period of time.
- Not beating out you fellow commander with metrics.
- Not to get back with no bad paper so you get picked up for CSM or the War College.
WIN THE WAR one counterpart at the time, regardless of what progress is measured in (forward, lateral, or even backwards movement)!
What a concept.
Sometimes it seems like that is not part of the mission analysis.
Jorge
Jorge,
I for one, cannot argue AGAINST one single point you made. You are correct on ALL accounts. That is one reason why I believe this has to be a “special” unit. I hate using that term…lets see…how about “different”???
Yes, you are right. It is that “drastic shift” on page six paragraph number one that I also knew would be the biggest obstacle.
You definately know what you are talking about. I hope I get asked to do this and if I do – I’ll blog you and we will get to work.
I wish I could have made this a more interesting argument – but I can’t.
I do however, believe that it could be done. We could find the men, we could find the right C2 element, we could find the right place and time, we COULD do this. But WILL we?
STRENGTH AND HONOR
Jim
All I know about Afghanistan is that they didn’t attack us, as President Bush and Obama have claimed. According to 9/11 Scholar Emeritus, Dr. David Ray Griffin, nine books on the tragedy under his belt, the last about Osama bin Laden: he wrote that Osama was dead, died around December 16, 2001 from kidney problems. Was buried in an unmarked grave in Pakistan. And so announced in Pakistan papers. Yet the tapes, DVD’s and such keep coming, produced by CIA. It behooves US to keep Osama myth alive, to influence US policy at home, and so that there’s a bad guy to blame. Yet Osama in his first tape never admitted to causing 9/11 and did not think it was the Muslim thing to do to kill innocent people, particuarly women and children.
Voice morphing was used in later tapes and stand-in Osama’s, some with fuller faces, lighter beards, no paralyzed left arm, one with a died beard, wearing gold ring, prohibited in Muslim tradition. Dr. Griffin also received information of Obama’s death from former CIA Station Chief and author, Robert Baer. Thus, if Obama is dead, why are we still blaming the Afghans for harboring him? Why are we blaming Afghanistan for attacking us. They didn’t. The US Government was behind the false flag operation of 9/11, used to create the War on Terror, and to attack Muslim countries, Afghanistan and Iraq, the latter for its cheap sweet crude oil, the former for a pipeline route north to the Caspian Sea Basin and its oil and natural gas, and to deliver it north via pipelines built to Europe, southbound to Pakistan and the Indian Ocean. The oil would then be exported to the East. That’s what our our Afghanistan emnity is all about.
And now our General Big MacKrysol wants 80,000 more of our boys to harass the Afghanis and get themselves killed, especially as winter comes on and the land deep-freezes. The whole project is a lie and insane. What’s more the CIA wants to hold onto the opium crop to finance its black ops. When the Taliban was in full power, production went down 98%. Now it’s all the way back up. I don’t believe in keeping one American soldier there. Pack up, come home, call it eight ugly years. What Alexander the Great, the British Empire, or the Soviet Union couldn’t accomplish, the conquering of Afghanistan, we will not either. Suicide mission. Many thanks for listening to an alternative voice. God bless America. Best wishes for your safety and immortal soul.
Jerry Mazza, NYC, where it first happened,
gvmaz@verizon.net.
Dear Jerry,
in the most of your oppinions , you are right.. it sounds strange to send army to afganistan , to try to control the stuff there….I dont know what things you know about them , there, in USA, but here, in Greece, we are closer to them and , as i know , whe have an clearer view of the situation there…exept this, unfortunatelly, we have many afgan illigal immigrants here, and i can assure you that, because of the Talibans government , those people live like neaterdals….
They dont have respect to anything exept what their politically moving priests say to…they treat to women like animals and worst… before some days, allmost a month, they kidnaped an Greek teacher, because his was a teacher to Kalash people, people who live there from Alexander the Greats times, and they call themselves as Greeks, sons of Alexanders soldiers…Their anatomy doesnt seem like an arabian or afganistanian…but as a greek…I cant imagine what would happened if those people, taliban , stay alone, without UN troops there….
I think the “Download” hyperlink is messed up. I received it as a “.php.pda” file. Obviously that is not right. Is the link broken or am I?
it sounds too good !!! Mr Pressfield , do you know if it will be published at Greek, from the Greek publisher…?
Mr. Mazza,
You must be one of Nancy Pelosi’s boys. You may be from NY where it all started but you’ve obviously missed the forrest for the trees. I can tell you that I personally know someone who lost his Dad the morning of September 11, 2001. I also work, everyday, with someone who lost 40 friends/colleagues from the NYPD with offices in the World Trade Center. He left the NYPD to show support to the men and women of the US Military by coming to work for us. I say to you, he would be appalled if he read your comments. The fact that you think your President and my Commander in Chief would put us in harms way to influence US Policy at home is treacherous. Neither President Bush nor President Obama ever said that Afghanistan attacked us. President Bush said that we would go after anyone who harbored terrorists. That’s why we’re there. The difference between the United States and Alexander the Great and the Russians is that they went in to Afghanistan to conquer and take over the lands. The United Kingdom invaded Afghanistan because they feared Russian encroachment into Central Asia. The United States is not trying to conquer Afghanistan and take it as a common wealth. We are there to disrupt and destroy Al-Qaeda. US National Security Strategy is to strengthen alliances to defeat global terrorism and work to prevent attacks against us and our friends. Stability, or lack thereof, is not just National…it’s Global. If you think for a second that Osama Bin Laden is dead then you are as ignorant as your comments portray you to be. Additionally, General McChrystal is not asking for 80,000 troops. He’s asking for 40,000. Since you are not on the ground in Afghanistan and you do not carry the weight of responsibility that our Generals and Admirals carry, you do not understand nor are you willing to understand. It is with a heavy heart that General McChrystal requests 40,000 additional troops. While I can appreciate your concern for the many lives in harms way, rest assured that we all willfully volunteered to be in the greatest military of the greatest country in the world.
Erryn,
STRENGTH AND HONOR
Jim Gant