Guest Post: Duncan Hunter and Human Terrain System by Turner
[by Mark Safranski / “zen“]
ZP is pleased to bring you a guest post by Pete Turner, co-host of The Break it Down Show and is an advocate of better, smarter, transition operations. Turner has extensive overseas experience in hazardous conditions in a variety of positions including operations: Joint Endeavor (Bosnia), Iraqi Freedom (2004-6, 2008-10), New Dawn (Iraq 2010-11) and Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan 2011-12).
ON REPRESENTATIVE DUNCAN HUNTER’S QUESTIONS ABOUT HTS
by Pete Turner
Today I was sent this USA Today article about Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Ca) and Human Terrain System with a request for comments. An excerpt:
….A critic of the program, Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican and member of the Armed Services Committee, demanded answers about the program from Acting Army Secretary Patrick Murphy in a letter sent Monday. Hunter noted “striking similarities between the two programs” and called on the Army to explain how the Global Cultural Knowledge Network differed from Human Terrain System. He also asked for an accounting of its cost and the number of people it employs.
“Unless the Army can show real differences between programs, then there should be no doubt that this constitutes a blatant attempt to rebrand and reboot a failed program under another name and a launch it with a reworded mission statement,” Hunter told USA TODAY on Tuesday. “What’s obviously lost on the Army is that it wasn’t just the implementation of HTS that was the problem, it was the whole thing, to include the program’s intent and objective.”
I have no faith in TRADOC’s ability to get Human Terrain System or HTS 2.0 any more right than last time. The program was full of prima donnas, liars and academics who lacked the ability to relate to the military and commanders. Also, commanders aren’t trained in how to best use HTS assets either – and that matters. For example:
COL: “Pete, I want you to tell me who the most influential person in our region is….can you do that?”
Pete: “Yes Sir, I have the answer already…it’s you…until the people recognize their own governmental leaders, police and military, our focus has to be in ramping your influence down while we enable them to ramp up, Sir.”
That statement is the essence of what an HTS does – we identify and translate the intersection of the ramps. There is no book on how to do it well. The ground truth is where the best work is done. It’s a shame that Rep Duncan Hunter and DoD cannot see that.
For those who aren’t familiar with my work, I have 70+ months of time working in combat zones. I’ve worked most of this time at the lowest level interacting with locals on well over a 1000 patrols. A great deal of this time I worked in the HTS program mentioned in the article.
Rep D. Hunter questioned the need and was critical of the original HTS program. Like any program we absolutely had our share of fraud, waste and abuse. Here’s the thing…the HTS program even when legitimately run is expensive. Units work hard, long hours and a relentless schedule. On numerous occasion, I’d work a 20 hour day followed by an 18 hour day followed by a string of 16 hour days. An 84 hour week is the minimum I’d work. Working at the minimum pace of 12 hours a day 7 days a week, a person will “max out” on their federal pay for the year and accumulate “comp time” or paid days off.
Since there are always things to do, lives at stake, command directives to pursue…missions to go on, planning to complete, analysis to run, reports to write, meetings to attend…it’s not hard to work 90+ hours a week and be seen as not doing enough. How about this – some units will practice for a meeting for hours prior to the actual meeting? If a unit is going to spend 6 hours prepping for and executing a meeting, that’s just ½ of a day…yes, legitimate work will result in paid leave.
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