How to survive a minefield?
Part 2. The Marketing Mix that stopped the Taliban.
In the mix of that high casualty hell, only one daily foot-patrolling infantry platoon beat the odds and took no casualties.
Read part one here: Part 1
Marketing in Minefield.
The article will now showcase 81mm Mortar Platoon (81’s) and the marketing-magic that facilitated their survival. Usually, centered in the rear of the battle to operate mortar systems, the 81’s thought they had it made with a comfortable - fairly safe job in the rear. Party ended before it began; After the Battalion’s initial multiple mass-casualty situations, the 81’s where quickly sent to the front to sustainably patrol an area to themselves.
This is the magnificent story of their collaborative defensive marketing tactics. Under the direction of highly intelligent Platoon Commander, and his equally crafty Marines, here was their first tactic:
Change your name and humanize yourself.
Change your name to be more likable to the population preferably translated into the native tongue. “White Cat” was a popular, memorable, and because many people adore cats. It always got an initial laugh especially when followed with a casual “Meow”. “Mickey-Mouse”, is universally loved and rememberable. Remember, when meeting people tell them you are a parent with children and talk about your children. Marines are dicks and want a gunfight. In the case of the 81’s, Uncommon Rapport was a Common Virtue, the 81’s set themselves apart with a smile :) Smile and the world will smile with you, fart and you stand alone.
Define your target audience.
Sun Tzu said, “Know your enemy”. It’s easy to start looking far and hard for a boogyman in war. People train for him, create plans on top of plans, and drill until the end of days. You could be the most elite fighting force on the planet.
Regardless….
Sometimes the boogyman is a motivated 12 year-old with a well-placed IED.
3. Define an objective for your target audience.
Find a teacher, resurrect a school, and get the kids engaged in education. There had been a previous school house near the patrol base that was occupied with squatters. The task was straightforward for an asymmetrical war: Find Teachers not Taliban, kick out squatters, and re-establish school for kids. Easier said than done.
Hunt for Teachers not Taliban
With a 1 in 30 literacy rate. Its was easier to find Taliban than Teachers, but they found one. Turned out, he had been teaching boys clandestinely.
4. Pass out Psychological Operations flyers targeted towards kids.
These flyers encouraged kids to not touch explosives and report them to the local government.
With the baseline child sentiment established, they passed out cartoon flyers made for kids.
5. Stickers!
Stickers stay and say, “We were here”. Plus, the kids resisted others trying to take their stickers. The best stickers were the ones they could relate to like, “farm animals”. Even the little girls responded well to the stickers; Before stickers, girls just ran away. Don’t give kids candy, gone in a flash.
A marketing ethics note: What could go wrong with candy, kids, and a minefield? Throw the candy down a sketchy path and see if the kids follow. Sure, some unwitting kids might get blown up, but that is war. Then at what a point would you become the enemy? These moral dilemmas are very difficult to articulate; In fact, most veterans find it easier to simply kill themselves.
6. Magazine distribution
Similar to a paper boys, they distributed quarterly, pro-government magazines. Distribution consisted of throwing the magazines over the walls and into compounds. It showed presence and made some locals wonder if their compound had been searched while they where away. Click here to watch the video of magazine distribution.
7. Biometrics Collection
How do you get pictures of people whom hide their faces?
People respond to incentives. The 81’s had a cheep ID card maker and IDs where exchanged for biometrics. Afghanistan is the poorest country in the Asian content. These farm people have never had a working government, ID, or proof of any existence, and this was worth keeping 81’s alive. Everyday, a patrol carried on them ID cards of locals whom submitted their biometrics from the previous patrol encounter. The ID cards where complete bullshit and gave them access to nothing. The Afghans did not realize this and never caught on.
However, the Battalion HQ caught on, due to the amount of people with IDs trying to access the bigger bases and sent a mission to confiscate the ID card maker. At that point 90% of the local adults in the 81’s area of responsibility had their biometrics collected; Approximating 280 males, 15 children, and 0 women. Even after the ID card maker gone, the heuristic was set and locals understood: If theTransformer Marines get hurt, no more ID cards.
8. Nightly dinner with high level Taliban Commanders.
I know what you’re thinking, reality is stranger than fiction, and it is.
In fact, they all lived together in the same base. The patrol base was a power transformer, transforming power from the Khajki dam 10 miles north on the Helmand river. The transformer was built by the Taliban in the 80’s and these guys claimed to be honest “electricians”. With no formal schooling on electrical power these electricians were in charge of all the power distribution in the Sangin district. If they disappeared, so did all the electrical power. They had multi-channel radios, one directly behind O’shea.
The electricians would tune to the Taliban’s radio frequencies and sometimes get caught talking to them. At least three of the electricians where reported to higher for having scaled down 3D mud models equipped with rectangular wood blocks to represent the Marine vehicles in their precise locations. These models where located by patrolling Marines on the electricians property, with in 20 meters of their compounds. Incidents like these, where reported to higher multiple times, but ever came.
However, the old toothless man on the left is Mohammad Essa, sitting next to the Platoon Commander (Patric O'Shea). He ate when he wanted and flat-out-refused to practice Ramadan, stating, “I am always in Jihad”. Notably, Essa would smoke cigarettes in a peculiar way; With the butt between his fingers, he did not bring the cigarette butt to his lips, but instead balled a fist, put the fist to his mouth, and inhaled. With hot tea and a cigarette after dinner, Mohammad Essa used to reminisce about fighting the Russians when he was a young man.
Excitedly, the Marines sat cross-legged on the grungy red rug like little kids, summoning the war stories from this old savage. He used to fire Rocket Propelled Grenades at Russian tanks as they fell into big anti-tank pits dug by the locals and covered with vegetation. Listening to his stories, felt like the first ancient Greek that learned to write and sat down to record Homer and the story of an Afghan Odysseus. He also had somewhere between 11 to 16 children, depended on the day you asked him (infant mortality). Serendipitously, there was no internet service and the Marines possessed one digital asset worth its weight in gold, porn. Between the whole platoon, they shared gigs of it with their live-in hosts and Mohammad Essa was a horny-old-man.
9. Wear local clothing for rapport.
You will be hard pressed to find another Marine Officer in modern history, acting like Lawrence of Arabia. Likewise, O’shea Haan had phenomenal rapport building with the locals. His prior Afghan experience taught him whom of influence to target. His first target was the “Mirrorwaab,” the man who determines the irrigation water-flow (unpopular with the locals). He wined and dinned him and gave the Mirrorwaab a feeling of importance he never had before. With a monopoly on all utilities, a meeting took place with all the local elders and Taliban about starting the school.
“The end state of all our operations is we need to determine the elements of instability and the root causes of problems. If we don’t do that, then it’s an endless cycle. The only way you do that is building relations with the locals; figuring out the root causes and then you can address those.” (Patrick O’shea).
Given the gravity, it was a unique experience to meet such a gathering of influential, dangerous, and intimidating men wearing eyeliner. Importantly, a local teacher was found and everything was emplace to get the school running. All members biometrics where collected and they where given an ID card. Notice the banner that was made for that event? The Afghans where not accustomed to this kind of marketing but where very receptive.
The meeting ended well and the Taliban was in full support of allowing the school and having girls attend too! The end result was: The teacher was too afraid to teach in the school. However, he bravely began to teach girls to read and write (in his compound only). Click here to watch the video. Its quick video, but the girls were very nervous and were just getting out of class.
The locals loving teased O’shea Haan stating, “He looks like a Taliban Commander”. They offered the White Cat three wives, a mud home, and some land; In exchange to stay in Afghanistan.
From that point on, the locals protected the 81’s from the insurgent fighters, by diverting them to fight the Marines to north and south of their position. Sadly, war is hell and no happy ending for the surrounding Marine platoons. Now, the veteran suicide rate is the enemy.
Thats how you survive a minefield.
Loosing your humanity is complacency and complacency kills.
10 steps to walk out of a minefield:
Change your name and humanize yourself.
2. Define your target audience.
3. Define a mission for your target audience.
4. Flyers
5. Stickers
6. Magazines distribution.
7. Biometrics collection.
8. Nightly dinner with the enemy.
9. Wear local clothing.
10. People respond to incentives.
Most important step: Follow the White Cat.
For more expert articles on manipulating human behavior read: How to optimize humans to increase page ranking?