Applied Sociology ...in Afghanistan
(via Miller-McCune - Feb. 2010)

"...the Pentagon’s Human Terrain System is in the process of either transforming the U.S. military or being rejected by it."

“What you’re trying to do is understand the people’s interests, because whoever is more effective at meeting the interests of the population will be able to influence it,” McFate told Wired magazine three years later."

“We could kill [the] enemy from now on for a hundred years and wouldn’t be one step closer to winning this war,” Kwast said, turning his eyes to a distant mountain range, cast pink by the setting sun. “But if the people of Afghanistan trust us more than they trust the Taliban, we will win overnight. … If someone is shooting at us from a village, let’s leave and return at a later time to win the hearts and minds of the village.”