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سلام غليکم
SiiNii زما نوم
I am a US Soldier who desires to learn Pashto. This is my first deployment to Afghanistan, and my first deployment in a non-combat role where my duties keep me inside of a FOB. I haven't seen much of the country itself, except for a brief helicopter ride, I hope to change this and get out into the field where I can meet and speak with Pashtuns, find out the ground truth about what is happening.
The biggest thing I noticed in a previous deployment in Iraq as an Infantryman was that our limited ability to communicate with the Iraqis severely limited our effectiveness. When fighting a counter insurgency how can we understand the needs of the local populace without being able to sit down and talk to them over an extended period of time? How can we gain their respect if we don't understand their culture and continuously offend their honor? How can we promise them security if we don't know when and where the threats are coming from? Our patrols can hardly gather intel if the only channel of communication is a single interpreter per platoon / company, who often has a rudimentary command of English.
In the long run my objective is to find an effective way for military personnel to learn Pashto. I felt that if just ten percent of our men who are out in Pashtun areas knew the language we could fight the war with fewer casualties on both sides and end the chaos much sooner.
Thank you all for any help you can provide.
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I don't know if aimal khan is on this forum but if he is I want to give special thanks to him for his basic Pashto thread from this forum :
http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/sh...anguage-Course
SiiNii زما نوم
I am a US Soldier who desires to learn Pashto. This is my first deployment to Afghanistan, and my first deployment in a non-combat role where my duties keep me inside of a FOB. I haven't seen much of the country itself, except for a brief helicopter ride, I hope to change this and get out into the field where I can meet and speak with Pashtuns, find out the ground truth about what is happening.
The biggest thing I noticed in a previous deployment in Iraq as an Infantryman was that our limited ability to communicate with the Iraqis severely limited our effectiveness. When fighting a counter insurgency how can we understand the needs of the local populace without being able to sit down and talk to them over an extended period of time? How can we gain their respect if we don't understand their culture and continuously offend their honor? How can we promise them security if we don't know when and where the threats are coming from? Our patrols can hardly gather intel if the only channel of communication is a single interpreter per platoon / company, who often has a rudimentary command of English.
In the long run my objective is to find an effective way for military personnel to learn Pashto. I felt that if just ten percent of our men who are out in Pashtun areas knew the language we could fight the war with fewer casualties on both sides and end the chaos much sooner.
Thank you all for any help you can provide.
------------------------------------------------------
I don't know if aimal khan is on this forum but if he is I want to give special thanks to him for his basic Pashto thread from this forum :
http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums/sh...anguage-Course
...khushala wosay pa khpala khawra ...
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