26 Geneva
Terry and Pru passed through the halls of the OSG enclave in the Geneva CA, passing through various checkpoints where their IDs were scanned. They luminous arrows guided them through the maze of offices and work centers. Finally, they reached the office to which they had been summoned.
General Ishmael Khan rose from his desk as his aide announced them. Pru recognized him from her com acquaintance, but was surprised to find him rather shorter than she had expected, only about 170 cm.
He came to greet them, his impeccable tunic matching his kilt. As before, there were ribbons on his left breast in the military manner. Anticipating this and the related coolness of the environment, both of them had worn lightweight, fitted shirts. They had cases with them containing documents they thought might be required, even though they could have been displayed or printed through the com system had they not brought them in physical form.
Pru shook the General’s hand. He retained his grip, briefly, and smiled up at her before turning to shake Terry’s. He gestured to chairs and returned to his. His desk was clean except for one file folder to which he never referred and one or two pens, neatly – though not precisely – arranged.
“I asked you both to come here,” he began, “because I want to thoroughly understand what you are proposing. The ideas you propose will require major changes in our Special Ops forces and probably a substantial increase in numbers. That costs credits, and I am sure you know that. But, I also assume you have a justification for all of that. And,” he smiled at Terry, “I am also sure that the end result will be good for Neo-Tantra.”
Good naturedly, Terry responded, “That may be, sir. But, the objective is a more effective response force than we now have. I’m sure you want that as much as we do.”
General Khan nodded. “First, let me thank you both for your help with the Ouled Naïl matter. Of course, it was your Bravo Force member, Pru, who discovered the village. I will find out why our people did not know of it.” He smiled frostily at them both. “Then, you took rapid, effective, and creative action there. Very commendable!” He looked at Pru, “I understand you are rather sensitive about your role as a force commander, Ms Whiteside. You should not be. You did an excellent job, and it is because you did that we are here today to consider the ideas you began to implement there.”
“Thank you, sir,” Pru replied. “You are correct that I am sensitive about being considered a force commander, and that’s because the designation is not accurate. And in the event, we lost Trooper Bouchard, which should not have happened. I regard that as a personal failure…” she raised her hand to forestall his interruption, “even though I know those things happen.
“My sensitivity, as you call it, is because I see myself as a manager, not a force commander. And, the proposal we are all looking at is a management proposal, even though it has implications for command and control of Special Ops forces.”
“Well, I agree with that analysis,” said General Khan. “So, let’s get on with it.”
Terry began. “Sir, we are proposing a top-to-bottom change in the management concept of Special Ops forces. Having said that, these changes can be implemented in a phased manner, beginning with areas where we have the most incidents, and implementing them in more quiet areas on a much more leisurely basis. That will reduce the cost, and give us the opportunity to learn as we proceed, and adjust our concept as we go.”
General Khan interrupted with a graceful gesture. “You realize, I suppose, that the current doctrine has been in place for almost fifty years. Change does not come easily in our field. And, that is at least in part because the present doctrine has generally been successful.”
Pru spoke up, smiling. “We are aware of that, sir. That is why we are using the term ‘management concept’ rather than ‘doctrine’. Doctrine and dogma are not far apart, I think, and we don’t want to ask you to change your religion.”
The General’s eyes twinkled and he chuckled. “Well put. I shall try to keep that in mind.”
Terry resumed. “There are several aspects of this management concept. We’ll address each of them separately later, but to summarize, we propose to change Special Ops force structure in two basic ways. One is to associate individual SO teams with specific, but broadly defined ethnic or cultural areas, and to assure that each team consists mainly of individuals specially trained in the customs, languages and habits of the people who live in those areas. Preferably, they will be native informants, but otherwise highly trained outsiders. As you know, the success of both Bravo Force operations was due in large part to their intimate knowledge of the people and territory in which they operated.
“Second, these SO teams will work with a new management level, Local Area Controllers. These will be similar to the Case Operators we now use, but in this new concept, the Case Operator will work side-by-side with a Local Area Controller. This is because, as you know, Case Operators are not always fully familiar with local languages and customs. The Case Operator is an intelligence analyst, that is, staff not a line officer – although they have been acting as both. That has usually been successful, but in the Wadi Felucca case, we found it had some drawbacks. It did not affect the outcome, in part, because the Bravo Force commander was able to intervene.” General Khan raised his dark, heavy eyebrows.
Pru responded to the unspoken request. “Sir, our Case Operator was unaware of the tracking skills of one of my people, a native Berber. I explained this to him to prevent him from forbidding her recon sweep on the first intrusion. It was her reconnaissance that enabled us to spot the com antenna the target was using. I feel that knowledge was important to our success.” The general nodded and motioned for Terry to continue.
“The Local Area Controllers will be fully aware of force capabilities, will know the local languages and customs, as well as the terrain. The Case Operators will be able to provide on-going background information and analysis developed before the incident becomes an SO operation as well as technology and legal coordination. The Local Area Controller will be able to apply that information in his or her work with the people on the ground.” Terry paused.
General Khan considered this information, then asked, “What does that mean in terms of force strength?”
Pru took that one. “Our projections indicate that we will not require additional force in areas except sub-Saharan Africa, where I am aware you are considering expansion in any case. We propose taking existing forces and cross-train them in languages and customs by stationing them on training exercises similar to your current practice, but in target areas where they’ll learn new things. We will also cross-train Local Area Controllers in a similar way. For example, we’re considering taking officers from a force and training them as Local Area Controllers to broaden the understanding, at both levels, of the problems of control. And, in each circumstance, we can use the appropriate cross-trained people as Local Area Commanders.”
Khan nodded. “You’d have me believe that you’re just adding a level of command – excuse me, of management – and doing some cross training, am I correct?”
Terry replied, “Not exactly, general. The LAC is actually a replacement for the Case Operators we are now using. The Case Operators become staff only, where you now have them serving, as needed, as both staff and line. Not all Case Operators are good in chain-of-command positions. We feel it’s important to differentiate the two.”
Pru added, “It’s my belief, from talking with troopers and force officers, General, that the cross training will be readily accepted and easily accomplished by more careful personnel assignments. In Captain al-Khud’s team, for example, everyone speaks some Arabic, as well as Common English and their native tongue. But, there are several personnel who could also be trained in some of the languages and dialects common along the Maghreb, not to mention some who already are native speakers. These might include the Berber dialects and even French. And, by careful assignment, these people could also get a chance to learn the customs of those people.”
“You make the assumption,” the general said, “that SO personnel are infinitely intelligent and educable.”
“No, sir. But, it is clear to me that many of them are not being utilized to their fullest. There will always be use for personnel whose skills are limited, but I believe we need SO forces that are as adaptable and broadly trained as possible.
“There is one additional area of training we propose, sir,” Terry added. “We propose that all SO personnel be put through basic Neo-Tantra training.”
General Khan chuckled again. “And to what end, Terry, other than to improve your profit picture?”
Pru spoke up. “Sir, I think you misunderstand. Let me recall for you the Ouled Naïl matter. You were kind enough to send us a very well trained force, almost all of whom spoke Arabic. The same was true of the med team. But, we – well, I won’t say we wasted time, but we had to spend considerable time educating them about the special conditions we faced. That’s not criticism; it’s merely that they approached the situation as a military or police action. But, it wasn’t.
“The situation at Ouled Naïl had its legal or police aspects, in that implants had been removed. And, there was a sort of military aspect, in that the men were armed and some of the women were presumed to be hostages, or held against their will. But, that wasn’t totally accurate either.
“Most of the people at Ouled Naïl were there out of belief. They had decided to follow the ideas of the headman and return to what he believed were the earlier practices of Islam. Under the law, they have a right to do that. Our problem with the SO team was to get them to look beyond the legal and military issues, and see that, in essence, these people were asserting their rights. We simply had to restore them to a legal state by restoring their implants. We had quite a struggle with your commander to get him to see this point of view.”
The general smiled. “I’m glad you succeeded,” he said. “But in the end, about half the members of this cult left it. Where does that fit in your theory?”
“We interviewed those who left. Some were simply disillusioned with the realities of the ‘simple life’. Others felt they were misled into joining, and some, mostly women, felt they had been deluded and mistreated by men who had married them and then forced them into a life they did not want. But, there’s still a dedicated group of about 55 men, women and children living there, who seem quite happy with it. We have offered free Neo-Tantra training to all of the people involved and most of them have accepted it with excellent results so far. Even some of the people still living there have taken the training and benefited from it.
“I believe we enabled these people to adopt an alternate way of life on a more civilized basis than that of misinformation and coercion. And, one of the reasons we were able to do that was because my Bravo Force had all had Neo-Tantra training and were able to sense and appreciate the attitudes of the people there. We were able to convince the SO team of this, but it would have been far more effective had they had the ability already.”
“Actually,” the general said, “I’ve talked with Captain al-Khud about your ideas. He has endorsed them quite enthusiastically. He is not insensitive, and I know that he has often felt that some of our assignments could well have been handled more – shall we say, subtly. And, you feel that Neo-Tantra training will help with this.” He turned to Terry. “I have a number of concerns. First of all, Neo-Tantra is about sex education, as far as I know, and I really can’t see how that fits in a military setting. And, what’s the cost? In lost personnel time availability, and credits?”
Pru intervened, “General Khan, Neo-Tantra isn’t just sex education. In fact, that’s not it at all. Neo-Tantra teaches, first and foremost, the skills of empathy. That is, we teach the ability to be aware of the ‘feelings, thoughts and experiences’ – I’m using the dictionary definition here – of others without experiencing them oneself. For example, I sense your skepticism about this idea and your conviction that Terry’s trying to pull a fast one here.” She smiled in response to the General’s grin and nod. “Neo-Tantra does teach sexual practice, but only as an extension of the empathic training that is its base. The two are quite separate, though one enhances the other.”
The General nodded. “All right. I can see the difference, and for the time being, I’ll accept that. But if my men experience the emotions of their opponents, won’t they be influenced by them, perhaps to the detriment of the operation?”
“No, sir,” Pru replied. “You are confusing empathy with sympathy. Empathy allows me to experience another’s emotions and feelings without sharing or accepting them. When I’m in the Salle, I may experience my opponent’s desire to use a tactic against me, but it does not, I assure you, persuade me to let him actually use it against me.” They both chuckled.
“I take your point; we will discuss this further,” the General said, and turned to Terry. “Now, what about the costs?”
Terry replied, “The time and availability issues are relatively easy to address, sir. Neo-Tantra training should become a regular part of recurring SO personnel training. So, there would be no expansion of training time required. As for instruction, I’m prepared to make instructors available at very reasonable cost. I am convinced that the added efficiency of your SO forces, combined with the new management concept, will more than pay its way.
“And, as certain SO individuals become adept at Neo-Tantra techniques, they may be able to assume the role of instructor for their teams. I will undertake to provide instructor-level training for such people at no cost. So, the added cost of instruction will, as time goes on, be non-recurring.” Terry grinned at the general. “As you know perfectly well, sir, Neo-Tantra does quite well from its relationship with OSG’s Special Operations Command. If I can make it more effective at minimal cost, it’s in my interest to do so.”
“Good point,” the general nodded. “Well, I take your argument regarding management concepts and doctrine quite seriously. And, I agree that it is increasingly necessary to react to incidents on a case-by-case basis with a greater depth of intelligence and analysis.
“There is one thing I would like to propose, however. I would appreciate it if you would change your terminology for the position you have been calling Local Area Controller.” He looked pointedly at Pru. “I would like you to refer to this individual as the Operations Manager.” His eyes sparkled at Pru. “I think that fits your management concept a little more aptly.”
General Khan rose and went to a door behind his desk, opened it and spoke quietly to someone. He returned to his desk, and in a moment or two, Captain al-Khud appeared.
“I’ve asked the Captain, whom you know,” the general said, as Pru and Ishmael shook hands, “to join us and work out the details of your plan.”