Anthro Wars Heat Up

The conflict between anthropologists and the military took an altogether different turn this week with Ann Marlowe's withering portrait of the Human Terrain System. Her critique is not sitting well with proponents of the military's attempt to incorporate anthropology into military doctrine. Human Terrain has faced criticism from academics, who oppose embedding anthros in military units, but Marlowe's article, published in the *Weekly Standard, *represents a blow from the other side of the political spectrum. Human Terrain supporters are striking back at the article, and at Marlowe. And some of it is gets ugly.

Joshua Foust writing at the Conjecturer, points to Marlowe's "long history of heroin addiction" (documented in a book Marlowe wrote). Yes, Google is wonderful, but it's not clear how this is relevant to debates over human terrain.

Dave Dilegge, writing in the Small Wars Journal, calls her an "accidental tourist." He writes: "My major exception is that a rank amateur, on the basis of a relatively brief visit to a war-zone can proclaim that the Human Terrain System is a solution in search of a problem and is contrary to sound COIN [counterinsurgency] theory and practice."

Beyond that, Dilegge questions Marlowe's logic:

The majority of Marlowe’s assertions is single-sourced and not attributable to those directly involved in the HTT, excepting a brief meeting with [program bosses] Dr. McFate and COL Fondacaro, and is based on uninformed opinions on a very new capability that has not been afforded an opportunity to get out of the starting gate.

S*** happens, Marlowe’s embed was screwed up and early mistakes might have occurred in the establishment of a HTS reach-back capability. Go figure, the prudent COIN practitioner learns and adjusts – does not throw out the baby with the bathwater. That is what the lessons learned process she identified does for a living – if we did it perfect at the onset there would be no need to learn lessons.

There is so much more to address in Marlowe’s careless assertions – and I will – but for now I’ll leave it with her claim the Human Terrain System, and by extension cultural knowledge, is a solution in search of a problem.

Every source Marlowe cited on the cultural issues, this site, FM 3-24, and the lessons leaned process (to include those of the Army, Marine Corps, and Joint Forces Command) have come down hard on the critical need for not only cultural knowledge but also the capability of acting on that knowledge on the ground and in harm’s way.

Dr. Montgomery McFate, who Marlowe seemed to take personal issue with, was a contributing author to the doctrine she implied is somehow contradictory to the HTS program. I don’t get that – at all.

Marlowe’s experience in Afghanistan was a mere snapshot in time and her article does an injustice to our efforts to get this thing right. I am sorry the HTS did not live up to her expectations of a “slam dunk” success from the get-go. There are many examples of capabilities that cut their teeth in combat, did not fare well initially, but went on to become shining examples of American military ingenuity. I believe the HTS will follow in those footsteps.

Marlowe criticized Human Terrain propopents, in part, for being amateurs when it comes to Afghan culture. So Human Terrain defenders accuse Marlowe of being an amateur when it comes to military theory. That's understandable, but what is beginning to characterize the Human Terrain debate is name calling.

Attacking critics' or proponents' character is only going to make this debate worse.

ALSO:

* Navy: Le'ts Play "Sim Iraq"
* "Sim Iraq" Sent to Battle Zone
* *Weekly Standard *Blasts "Human Terrain"
* Pentagon Forecast: Cloudy, 80% Chance of Riots
* Anthropology Association Blasts Army's "Human Terrain"
* Mapping Human Terrain "Enables the Kill Chain"?
* Pentagon Science & Technology: The Human Problem
* When Anthropologists Go to War
* When Anthropologists Go to War (Against the Military)
* When Anthropology Gets Ugly
* Report: Military Should Double Social Science Cash
* Can Social Science Win the War on Terror?