An unnamed Army Captain, describing a coalition medical clinic in Afghanistan, offers a great quote on training local medical staff during counterinsurgency:
“We try to put an Afghan face on what we do because we want people to accept the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,” the captain said. “It’s very important that the people support and work with the government. That’s the long term goal.”
In counterinsurgency, the battle is over the support of the population. Winning population support occurs slowly and thus any large counterinsurgency effort must position actions within a long time horizon. That is, counterinsurgency is about winning the population’s support today, tomorrow, and forever.
Providing health services to populations is one way to win support and training local indigenous health personnel is a way to extend that support long into the future. Furthermore, it is likely the public support benefit from providing health services to populations is an exponential effect. The positive effect on population support increases with time. That is, at any given moment, a force providing health care for two years likely benefits more than a force providing health care for two weeks.
Training local health personnel thus offers an increasing benefit to population support through being able to provide sustained, long term health care to populations.
Christopher Albon is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in armed conflict, public health, human security, and health diplomacy.
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