Hansmeister's shameless attention whoring thread

[Hansmeister]

In case any of you are wondering I'm currently in Afghanistan working as an advisor to the Afghan National Army.

I'm a Corps level advisor for Information Operations, PSYOP, Civil Affairs, and the Religious-Cultural Affairs section.  Since somebody at higher levels forgot to write the doctrine for much of the I've also been writing doctrine for IO and PSYOP, as well as teaching courses on it to their staff officers at Corps and below levels.  Most of the officers are Soviet trained and have very low skill levels, so they require a lot of assistance conducting even basic planning.  Due to the size of my portfolio my job is quite varied, I'm teaching classes, coordinate staff planning, run a radio station, plan for disaster relief, coordinate outreach efforts with the UN, develop advertising campaigns, conduct counter-propaganda, and a whole host of other responsibilities.  A lot of fun, but also a lot of work.  I'm on a small base with about another 100 US Soldiers, 40 French Soldiers, 200 contractors and surrounded by a much larger Afghan base with several thousand Soldiers.

We get rocketed quite infrequently, our biggest threat here is the potential for being shot in the back by a rogue ANA Soldier, which if you've been following the news happens all too frequently.

I calculated that I'm doing the job that requires 16 Soldiers to do properly, half of the positions of which are field grade officer level slots, including at least 2 LTC.  Thanks to US domestic politically pressure we have actually decreased the number of advisors and plan to do further cuts in the coming months, which creates significant problems in our ability to train and advise, to say the least.

[Razgovory]

Judging by rioting that has been happening in Afghanistan in the last few days, I think your efforts at PSYOP, civil affairs and religious-cultural affairs needs some work.

[Neil]

Come home soon.

[Razgovory]

Alive.

[chipwich]

  Most of the officers are Soviet trained

Why?

[Hansmeister]

  Most of the officers are Soviet trained

Why?

Because at the Corps most of the officers are pretty old, most of them with 30+ years of on-again off-again military service under various governments and insurgent groups.

[Tamas]

The moral of that of course is that perhaps you shouldn't train them TOO good, as you may very well face them on the opposite side in the future

[Hansmeister]

The moral of that of course is that perhaps you shouldn't train them TOO good, as you may very well face them on the opposite side in the future

There is little danger in that.  Most of their Colonels operate at the level of an unmotivated PFC.  I actually just put in a request to have one of the Colonels I'm overseeing replaced, since he lacks any initiative for the job.  So far I have seen little evidence of the Afghan warrior culture.

[The Brain]

How likely are you to see any evidence of warrior culture while a guy is spinning polka records and planning ad campaigns?

[Tamas]

Afghan warrior culture must be more about shooting someone in the back for your tribe, rather than serving in administration for a government operating under foreign concepts of democracy, and installed and kept in power by a foreign force.

[Viking]

OPSEC FTL

[Hansmeister]

Afghan warrior culture must be more about shooting someone in the back for your tribe, rather than serving in administration for a government operating under foreign concepts of democracy, and installed and kept in power by a foreign force.

There is no democracy in Afganistan.  It is entirely a top-down bureaucratically appointed government, only the irrelevant national parliament is elected, and the President, in what were, to be charitable, ver flawed election.  Local and provincial government is entirely appointed, not elected, as are the ministerial positions that wield real power.  IMHO, a disastrously designed setup from the getgo.  We should've never outsourced that to the UN.

[Brazen]

Good job Hansy, sounds really tough but well worthwhile.

You don't fancy giving an exclusive interview about your work to a reputable defence journalist, do you?

[Hansmeister]

Good job Hansy, sounds really tough but well worthwhile.

You don't fancy giving an exclusive interview about your work to a reputable defence journalist, do you?

I'm thinking about writing a book when I get back.  I wasn't very optimistic when I got here, but it is even far worse than I anticipated.  In general the US military has failed to adapt sufficiently to the situation.

And no, no interviews until I get back.

[grumbler]

The moral of that of course is that perhaps you shouldn't train them TOO good, as you may very well face them on the opposite side in the future  

Hans is the guy I want training someone my country might face in the future.  If even half of his skills at "logic" get transferred, they will know useful things about college football and will otherwise be much dumber than they started.

Stay safe, Hans.  We need you alive and well to send to Iran next.