Call Sign Chaos

by Jim Mattis

King Abdullah of Jordan, ever our ally, had allocated one of his most capable battalions to support us in Afghanistan, despite the pressing need for them at home, along his Syrian border. The commander, Colonel Aref al-Zaben, was a resourceful leader who brought fresh ideas to bear. He deployed his men on frequent patrols, and his interpreters kept him updated on the Taliban’s hateful messages going out over the airways to isolated communities in the mountain valleys. Using his own Muslim clerics, he began a daily radio barrage contradicting the fundamentalists’ misinterpretation of the Koran. The program was titled “Voices of Moderate Islam.” His troops distributed small radios to the families, and his clerics took to the air, challenging the Taliban’s ideology in a manner only fellow Muslims could. In call-in shows, it was clear that the Taliban were losing their hold on the people. On patrol, female soldiers wearing camouflage head scarves actively engaged with Afghan women in the villages in a manner that men or non-Muslims could not. Aref arranged for Afghan village elders to be flown to the Jordanian capital. In Amman, King Abdullah would address them in person, standing in front of a mosque but across the street from a Christian church in full view. The message of tolerance was clear, from the valleys of Afghanistan to the mosques of Jordan.