david petraeus – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

March 19: The Festival of Minerva, a Festival of Forgetting

Worshipping Minerva Today, March 19, marks the start of what for the Romans was the Festival of Minerva, based on a cult of worship of a goddess of “wisdom” and “war.” It is also the 10th anniversary of the start of the U.S. war against the people of Iraq, and, as many will forget, the […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The Other Moral Squalor of U.S. Militarism

With at least five top U.S. generals currently in the media spotlight for corruption, abuse of power, sexual assault, and now the adultery commotion around General David Petraeus, now ex-CIA director, it is a relief to see militainment go in reverse. Now all of the media entertainment involving the icons of the media-military complex is […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Marjeh, Afghanistan: X-ray of McChrystal’s Bleeding Ulcer

Updated: 28 June 2010 Operation Urban Inflation One objective I cannot accomplish here is a comprehensive recap of counterinsurgency doctrine, the development and execution of Operation Moshtarak in Helmand province, Afghanistan, starting in February, and a comprehensive analysis of all of the apparent outcomes. Instead, this a selective series of vignettes. The first vignette: on […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Militarism and Democracy: More on the McChrystal Affair

Perceiving the Subtext and the Context First, let’s begin with the video that the Pentagon might have wanted to make this past Wednesday, 23 June, 2010, regarding President Barack Obama replacing General Stanley McChrystal after the comments the latter made to Rolling Stone. This video reflects the preferred order of events among militarists, and among those who–not […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Video Propaganda: Human Terrain System on National Geographic

In terms of American mainstream media propaganda at the service of U.S. wars of occupation, and particularly favourable to the U.S. Army’s Human Terrain System, my vote for the most generous treatments, in descending order, are first the piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, second this prize in The Atlantic, third this recommendation to Obama […]

by John Stanton

HTS’ MAP HT Failure: People Not Being Paid, MAP HT Cost Overrruns

“It would seem that the U.S. Army TRADOC Command has entered a time warp. They have dusted off the files on CORDS and the old FAO program. The new COIN manual and doctrine are the Holy Grail! The message being sent is this: Use COIN or else!” The HTS Program Manager was scheduled to make […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The Pentagon’s Human Terrain, beyond the Human Terrain System

Revised: 05 July 2010 Originally, this report was titled “The Pentagon’s ‘Other’ Human Terrain System,” which in subsequent discussions and follow ups with a source in the military, proved to be too misleading. What we are dealing with here is the wider interest in “human terrain capability” across the military, and in military intelligence, separate […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

(Re)Imperializing Anthropology and Decolonizing Knowledge Production

I presented the paper below, “(Re)Imperializing Anthropology and Decolonizing Knowledge Production,” at the 8th Annual Critical Race and Anti-colonial Studies Conference of Researchers and Academics of Colour for Equality (R.A.C.E.), held at Ryerson University in Toronto, 14-16 November, 2008. Almost a year has passed since I promised to post it here, and I suspect that […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

David Price: The Press and Human Terrain Systems – Counterinsurgency’s Free Ride

The following article by David Price appeared in the 07 April 2009 issue of CounterPunch, reproduced here since it very much bears on the following post for today: Like a mad scientist’s slime monster that will not die in a 1950s B Movie, the Human Terrain System’s counterinsurgency teams not only somehow remains alive in […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

David Price interviews Roberto González on the Human Terrain System

The interview below was reproduced with the permission of Dr. David Price, from CounterPunch (03 February 2009). In connection with this post, see also: AMERICAN COUNTERINSURGENCY, by Roberto J. González (U. Chicago Press, 2009) Counterinsurgency, Anthropology and Disciplinary Complicity By DAVID PRICE During the spring and summer of 2007 word began circulating of a new military […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

General Petraeus’ Favorite Mushroom: The US Army’s Human Terrain System

As promised, whenever a new article on the Human Terrain System is released, I am advertising it and copying it for this blog. This latest article is John Stanton’s eighth on the Human Terrain System, and has been republished by Pravda and, as usual, will appear on several other sites as well. The previous seven […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

David Price: Anthropology, Counterinsurgency, the Kill Chain, and Plagiarism

David Price has a new article featured on CounterPunch: “Pilfered Scholarship Devastates General Petraeus’s Counterinsurgency Manual.” In it he describes the hastily assembled military manual, which engages in frequent plagiarism of anthropological works, and the defensive posture of Montgomery McFate in her purported effort to “anthropologize the military.” What is perhaps most striking about the […]