Female Combat Troops Will Link to Afghan Women for New York National Guard's 27th Brigade

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2011/06/mil-110606-arnews05.htm

FORT DRUM-- In what will be a first for the National Guard, a group of female National Guard Soldiers will deploy to Afghanistan attached to combat units as cultural mediators.

Dubbed a "Female Engagement Team," they will travel with the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, march and fight as they do, and then talk to Afghan women in an effort to understand their concerns.

“If female Afghans can be engaged, that opens up the other half of the population,” says 1st Lt. Kristen Rouse, platoon leader for the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment’s FET. “What the FET team offers is that we will enable the commanders to get to know the terrain of their operations in a more fair way.”

Other National Guard units have created Female Engagement Teams, but the teams being organized by the 27th BCT will deploy already attached to an infantry battalion.

Due to local custom, males in Afghanistan are not allowed to speak to females unless they are married. Because modern counter-insurgency doctrine advocates interacting and building trust with locals, military units, starting with the Marines in 2009, have begun sending females troops on combat missions as mediators.

The goal is for each FET to build relations within the various villages in their area, and to use this trust not only to find “atmospheric” intelligence on how people feel about various issues, but also to direct them to information on health concerns.

While female Soldiers had previously accompanied combat squads, what makes this unit unique is that each female is dedicated solely to the FET mission.

[Arctic Dave]

1. I see this going horribly wrong.

Why give the men a reason to smack their women around more. Now, they will just use anything they don't like as being implanted by US military women to undermine them via their spouse.