As for McFate…have you read the language of her public presentations about HTS? It is almost entirely milspeak, repeating the jargon of the military, quite unlike what one would expect from an anthropologist. Why would she defend the interests of social scientists, when in her very rebuttals to anthropologists she will not even answer them in the same language. She has become fully militarized, despite her propaganda about anthropologizing the military.

U.S. Is Said to Expand Secret Actions in Mideast
By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: May 24, 2010

means in relation to the HTS program. For those not familiar with it you can read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/world/25military.html

It sounds very much like a wave of propaganda to soften the politically conscious class for a large scale war. The title of the article is misleading, because according to the article, the U.S. has expanded it’s secret actions beyond the Middle East .

Another concern from the article is:

“While the C.I.A. and the Pentagon have often been at odds over expansion of clandestine military activity, most recently over intelligence gathering by Pentagon contractors in Pakistan and Afghanistan, there does not appear to have been a significant dispute over the September [2009] order.”

Well, what significant dispute could really be expected when it is a secret mission order being given by General Petraeus? I’ve heard this man being praised in Congress as if he could have taught Jesus a thing or two – by Republicans and Democrats. Had the decision faced the light of day and been put into the public debate there would have been a significant dispute. (I hope the American public is still just a little bit concerned about endless secret warfare)

And speaking of Congress, again from the NYT article:

“Unlike covert actions undertaken by the C.I.A., such clandestine activity does not require the president’s approval or regular reports to Congress, although Pentagon officials have said that any significant ventures are cleared through the National Security Council.”

Oh, I feel better now knowing that the NSC is clearing the significant militarized spy missions…just like when Oliver North was clearing those missions in Nicaragua…I can hear the paper being shred in the background now.

The language is ambiguous, and it is written by a committee…and meant to be valid only for the time being. One way to understand it might be to read it as what it is not saying–for example, it is not saying that the future of the program is guaranteed, and it is not saying that there will be an increase in funding, or that the funding will be continuous even in the short term. They may produce a glowing endorsement once they receive this “assessment,” but that is only if the assessment can manage to fly in the face of a mountain of evidence of wrongdoing and failure. The U.S. Army itself no longer has all its eggs in the HTS basket either.

Regular warfare: blow shit up, kill them all, in broad daylight.
Irregular warfare: blow shit up, kill a few, at night.

Also, what is “irregular warfare”? What is “regular” warfare?

The fact that HTS’ great defender, Gen. David Petraeus, is now all of a sudden the subject of newspaper articles suggesting he may run for president in 2012–and he does not deny it–might be a sign, planted from the top, of a distancing from Petraeus’ favourite projects. I would not be surprised if, for reasons relating to an electoral campaign, there were to be a great rush away from counterinsurgency, and toward proxy warfare, in time for 2012, to better serve the illusion of withdrawal from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Proxy wars–Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala–are never as politically costly to a regime as direct intervention with troops on the ground–Vietnam…and now Iraq and Afghanistan, unless it is an intervention with extremely narrow goals using overwhelming force–Grenada, Panama.

Interesting coincidence…I just received two unclassified documents this week outlining the social science plans for AFRICOM, and wanted to write a note to present them on this site. It is a morphing of how social science will be used, that seems to be very conscious of the many criticisms of HTS. The people in charge are not HTS persons themselves. In addition, I have been privately contacted by a government official who is very keen to emphasize to me that the U.S. Army has another human terrain analysis branch that is separate from HTS. Some of the basic principles of HTS have been lifted in a sense, which is why I also suspect that HTS itself will soon be jettisoned altogether, for being such a public liability and a program that is no longer viewed as essential, even by those who share its goals.

From another angle, and here people with an interest in media studies should be paying close attention, it seems that the dozens of favourable news articles in support of HTS, and its entire media strategy, are largely not paying off. There is a lesson here for those with an interest in “soft power,” “information operations,” and “strategic communications” — and it may be that the media, unlike the weapons of the weak, are the weak weapons of despairing elites. Just an hypothesis.

Thanks for the visit and the comment.

Unfortunately, I find little comfort in hearing the evaluation of the HTS program that was presented by the Committee. Open Congressional hearings are rarely anything except for the political constituent posturing with the intent to give headlines to those that need to remember why they supported their representative…I hope in this case I am wrong. One possibility that I see as leading to an end in funding to HTS is that many Generals would prefer more armaments. I say possibility because I haven’t heard this stated explicitly. I did listen to the recent House Armed Services Committee mark up though and have little doubt that this is true. In terms of lethality and liability I’m certain that the military command would prefer more unmanned aerial vehicles and more private sector support to conduct electronic warfare. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/05/cyberwar-cassandras-get-400-million-in-conflict-cash/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

The concept of human terrain programs doesn’t bother me as long as they publicly share the information (big laugh) and don’t utilize it to make military decisions (bigger laugh)….that would mean ending the military; I have no problem with keeping HTS and getting rid of the military.

Again, thanks to you and John Stanton for the great work!