Summary here.

Because how does one know where one is, or where one is headed, without local signposts.

“It’s not pure war-fighting any more,” says Lt.-Cmdr. Wynn Polnicky, part of the 2,500-strong Canadian military contingent currently waging war in southern Afghanistan against a shadowy force of fundamentalist Islamic rebels known as the Taliban.

“It’s pretty clear we have an insurgency here, but what really matters is what people think. So, just ask them. It’s not an earth-shaking idea.”

Or maybe, in a way, it is.

Traditionally, armies have tended to train most of their attention – not to mention almost all of their gun sights – on the firearm-toting fighters located on the opposite side of the front line, otherwise known as the enemy.

In Polnicky’s view, however, it is not just the enemy that you need to be concerned about.

It’s everybody else.

[snip]

An articulate if somewhat prickly individual, with a trim wedge of grey-flecked hair, regular features and wire-rimmed eyeglasses, Polnicky specializes in what the military refers to as operational research and analysis, a high-falutin’ phrase that can be reduced to a single word: effects.

“We try to determine what effects we are having,” he says. “It’s really, what effects are we having on the civilian population in Kandahar province?”

It’s a good question, but so far it’s a question that is largely unanswered.

As part of their efforts to win the support and co-operation of the local people, Canadian soldiers in Kandahar province regularly conduct meetings with village elders and also promote small-scale economic development projects, but such contacts are usually marred by oppressive security, and the outcome can seem ambiguous at best.

Especially amid the tensions of war, people caught in the middle are not always inclined to trust outsiders or to tell the truth. It is difficult to know what they are really thinking.

Polnicky’s solution is simple – merely ask. But he means to ask in a way likely to produce a useful response.

[snip]

True, you might not always like the answers. But knowledge is almost always preferable to ignorance – perhaps especially for soldiers, whose lives depend on understanding as much about their surroundings as possible.

[snip]

“When you’re fighting an insurgency, you’re not fighting the insurgents,” says Polnicky.

“You’re fighting the conditions that led to the insurgency. We just want to know what the people think.” Article