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Latest U.S. Taliban-Fighting Tactic: Trash Talk (Updated Again)

In a small town at the western edge of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, U.S. soldiers are trying a new tactic in the battle for hearts and minds: trash talking. “The previous day, a handful of insurgents in a nearby village had made the mistake of shooting at a pair of [U.S.] Kiowa Warrior helicopters,” Army Times’ […]

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In a small town at the western edge of Afghanistan's Kandahar province, U.S. soldiers are trying a new tactic in the battle for hearts and minds: trash talking.

"The previous day, a handful of insurgents in a nearby village had made the mistake of shooting at a pair of [U.S.] Kiowa Warrior helicopters," *Army Times' *ace Sean Naylor reports. The American forces didn't just counterattack, killing one militant and detaining three more. They rolled through the town's main street, parading the Taliban's captured guns and blaring from their loudspeakers: "We took these weapons from the dead Taliban that decided to fight Task Force Legion, and we took them from the cowardly Taliban that surrendered to us."

The soldiers apparently didn't add "in your face, Taliban." Apparently, they didn't have to.

In his August assessment of the war effort, top allied commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal called for a whole new approach in Afghanistan's "important battle of perception." McChrystals' fixes included the use of social media and the exposure of militants' "anti-Islamic and indiscriminate use of violence."

Instead, the soldiers of Task Force Legion are playing up their own use of violence. It's a way to break the Taliban's aura of invincibility, Lt. Col. Jeff French tells Naylor.

So French is handing out calling cards, to the town elders.

The cards show pictures of a Stryker and an OH-58D firing on the left, with photographs of U.S. troops hosting a shura and handing out gifts to children on the right, accompanied by the words, "We’re not going anywhere — it’s your choice," in English and Pashto.

UPDATE: Or maybe this tactic isn't so new. Check out this Stars & Stripes dispatch from August, 2004:

Frustrated that Taliban fighters were making themselves scarce, cavalry commander Capt. Brian Peterson ordered his psychological operations detachment to find a way to get the enemy onto the battlefield.

Their solution: shame. The soldiers drove into the mountainous region of southern Afghanistan near Tarin Kowt, a known Taliban stronghold, and blared through Humvee-mounted loudspeakers a simple message.

“Take off your burqas,” Afghan interpreters shouted, referring to the head-to-toe powder blue shrouds Taliban leaders once forced all women in the country to wear. “Come out and fight us like men.”

[File photo: SOCOM]

UPDATE 2: Dr. David Betz wonders, "What exactly is the message here?"

I wholeheartedly agree that we need to deal with the apparent belief of the Afghan peasantry that the Taliban are more resolved in the long-run than we are... [But] does calling the Taliban cowards make us seem more or less sure of ourselves? Whatever else they might be the Taliban are not cowards – gangsters, intimidators, bomb-vest wearers with too much heaven on their minds, woman-oppressing girl-murderers, music hating banners of kite-flying, etc and so on, yes - but not cowards. Some of the villagers being loudspeakered here are themselves Taliban or are brothers and fathers of them. Shouldn’t we be focusing on those people whom we are trying to reconcile not kill. Surely the dullest Afghan peasant will be asking themselves on sight of NATO forces bristling with firepower, behind heavy armour, with helicopter gunships, jet bombers and robot planes above ’how brave would you be with an AK, a bag full of grenades, and a pajama top?’

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