A Pipe Major with a new tune

By Captain Fraser Clark, Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team

Sergeant John H. Dawson knows people. A musician of many years’ experience, and Pipe Major of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada (an Army Reserve unit in Winnipeg), he is accustomed to the unusual. His pipe band performs at a wide variety of exhibitions, bringing him into contact with the colourful characters of the not-so-normal industry of show business.

As a tactical CIMIC operator (CIMIC stands for Civil-Military Co-operation), Sgt Dawson is deployed with the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (KPRT), a Canadian mission that includes groups from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Correctional Service of Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as well as a large CF contingent. The KPRT exists to help Afghans reconstruct their fractured, war-torn society, and CIMIC is crucial to its effectiveness.

Regular interaction with the public through both his military job as a musician and his civilian career made Sgt Dawson a natural choice for CIMIC. When he’s not hoisting his pipes or booking gigs, Sgt Dawson is a Delivery Centre Superintendent with Canada Post. In Kandahar City, however, the piper has to deal with an entirely different bag.

Although he’s been in theatre for less than a month, Sgt Dawson is well aware of the dangers that face ISAF troops. Only hours after he arrived at Kandahar Airfield, he took part in the ramp ceremony for Trooper Michael Yuki Hayakaze of Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians). Standing jet-lagged and sleep-deprived on the flight line with hundreds of other Canadians, and troops from the many other contingents at KAF, Sgt Dawson confronted the reality of combating a deadly insurgency. “It’s no longer a game. Now it’s the real thing,” said the 32-year-old father of three somberly.

CIMIC in the big picture

To the Afghan civilians they meet in the course of their work, Sgt Dawson and his CIMIC colleagues represent economic opportunity, urban development and capacity building. They also embody promises some Afghans suspect they will not live long enough to see delivered — a chance at security, development and reconstruction.

“I’ve seen the enthusiasm in the locals when I’ve met them, so that says we’re not totally shut out from their world,” Sgt Dawson said.

The soldiers of the CIMIC teams scattered throughout the districts of Kandahar Province bridge the gaps between the ISAF forces and the Afghan provincial administration in Kandahar City.

“Essentially, what we’re doing is based around enabling the army to operate freely with the consent of the people,” Sgt Dawson said. “If we’re assisting Afghans rebuild their society, then our CIMIC teams have to go out and meet with the district leaders … the village elders. They are the ones who influence their people to throw their support behind us and get going on various improvement projects.”

This is not a typical army operation, but then this is hardly a typical war.

Threats and promises of violence

Afghanistan’s conflict is an insurgency, and the battles are asymmetrical. Instead of fighting a recognizable enemy, ISAF and Afghan national security forces are up against a guerrilla force in the Taliban, who threaten and punish Afghan civilians who co-operate with soldiers like Sgt Dawson.

“Unfortunately, there are people outside this wire,” Sgt Dawson explained, “a small number of people, who want to see the Afghan national security forces fail. They want to see the Afghan national government fail and they want to see ISAF fail. Part of their way of doing that is through terror, violence, ambushes, road-side bombings.”

“Sometimes, we hear from the locals that if they’re known to be consorting with us, then they’ll receive threats from the Taliban,” he continued. “Night letters are a classic example of this type of intimidation.”

Night letters are designed to beat the locals into submission and convince them that the Taliban are the ultimate arbiters in the country’s future. “The effect of the letters is incredible; but that’s not all. Occasionally, they follow through on these messages by murdering their recipients.”

In this way, the Taliban reinforce their intended norms by punishing the few. The remainder, they hope, quickly toe the party line. Imagine a border collie herding his flock — except in Afghanistan, the collie carries a Kalashnikov and randomly shoots a lamb here and there to reinforce his authority.

The appearance of a night letter taped to a resident’s door has a powerful effect. “It strikes fear into the heart of an Afghan like no other tool in the Taliban arsenal,” admits Sgt Dawson. “And it quickly turns many of our supporters into helpless on-lookers. They want to work with us but don’t because of the very real fear they will be killed. I can’t blame them for being incapacitated like this. Suppose we disbanded our own police force back home. How long would it take before the bad guys reigned supreme?”

“All Afghans want is a normal life …”

Despite the dark side of the insurgency, what Sgt Dawson has seen so far in Kandahar City “has been encouraging,” but he allows, “More needs to be done.”

“We’re talking about one of the world’s poorest economies here,” he said. “Let’s face it: Afghanistan has been at war since 1979 and now this insurgency has been ongoing since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. At the end of the day, all Afghans want is a normal life and we’re trying to initiate that for them. I’m still new on the ground, but I’m here to work with them to help move their society forward — and they deserve our best effort.”

That’s a tune worth piping.