Working With Village Elders in Afghanistan - Or how to Test Your Patience!

American combat leaders are tasked with building rapport with the village elders at the community level in an attempt to gather intelligence about Taliban activities, increase the level of support for the Afghan central government in Kabul (Karzai's corrupt cronies), and to provide for increased security within the community against the Taliban.  This is a difficult task at best given the many variables our young combat leaders must deal with.  Factored into this task is the language barrier, a lack of understanding of the Afghan culture, the Taliban's successful efforts to intimidate the local village elders (with death threats), and the fact that the U.S. will not be there in force in a few years while the Taliban will be there forever.  Read a news report that provides more info on this in "Reliance on Afghan elders tests troops", Stars and Stripes, January 10, 2011.