Speak softly, carry a big gun
Into the hinterland with the Special Forces
Of course, nobody in ODA 936 believes that digging a well or building a school will automatically win the populace over. As the soldiers see it, maybe 10 percent of the locals embrace their presence, and 5 percent despise it. The rest want simply to be left alone. Yet in counterinsurgency work, mere "presence" is an enormous part of the mission, and presence is what Special Forces soldiers in Afghanistan believe will make the difference in nabbing targets like bin Laden. As Scott, the team intelligence sergeant, explains while driving a 4x4 over a washed-out road on the way back from the shura in Kanday: "For us to finally catch [bin Laden], it won't be like in movies. It will take somebody like one of the elders we just met who comes forward and leads us to him."
Which is why keeping a promise to attend a meeting of old men in a far-flung village is worth the effort. On the way to the shura, one of the two pickup trucks loaded with Special Forces and Afghan soldiers blew out two tires, breaking down in a mountain village two hours from Kanday. The Americans paid a villager 500 Pakistani rupees ($8.65) for the use of his truck for the day, and everyone piled in. Hours later, as the gathering in Kanday dragged on, the two soldiers in the mud-brick room stayed to hear the concerns of the elders, nervously checking their watches and thinking about the four-star general on a courtesy visit who was probably back at Camp Blessing cooling his heels. Too bad, the general would have to wait. The shura was more important.
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