Dissenter’s account of the US Human Terrain System from the inside

Having lost his job as a Cultural Resource Management archaeologist working with the Klamath Indians, John Allison posted his cv online and was shortly contacted by the Human Terrain Systems. John had done his doctoral fieldwork in Afghanistan in 1969-70, making him a potential asset for the HTS. He listened to the HTS message that its approach will save Afghan lives and, although skeptical of the claims, decided to join up. Over the several weeks of training, his skepticism grew and, along with another skeptic, he began to raise hard questions in training sessions. He increasingly realized that HTS claims, such as building rapport with local people, were empty rhetoric that could never be achieved in the field.

Throughout several months of training before resigning, Allison corresponded by email with David Price, professor of anthropology at St. Martin’s University and a member of the Network of Concerned Anthropologists. Price details their interchange in an article in CounterPunch.

John Allison submitted a critique of the HTS upon his resignation, and it is included in Price’s article. The overarching message is that the HTS fundamentally does not address key issues of anthropological ethics, notably the guideline about avoiding any possible harm to people in the field who provide information about themselves and others. Allison stood out from others in his group because his primary goal was to save Afghan lives. The HTS is about saving American soldiers’ lives. Period.

Image: “Afghanistan bazaar,” from flickr user The US Army, licensed with Creative Commons.