'Three cups of tea' a byword for U.S. effort to win Afghan hearts and minds

U.S. Army Capt. Michael Thurman, center, listens as Kokaran village elder Haji Fadi Mohammed complains about a raid that had taken place the day before in his neighborhood carried out by coalition forces. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times / May 23, 2010)


'Three cups of tea' has entered the U.S. troop lexicon as shorthand for a trust-building chat with locals. It is drawn from the bestseller by Greg Mortenson, who sets up girls schools in the region.

By Laura King,
Los Angeles Times
August 17, 2010

Reporting from Pul-e-Kheshti, Afghanistan

"So, did you have your three cups of tea?" a U.S. infantryman, bulky in body armor, asked another soldier as he emerged from the mud-brick home of an Afghan village elder.

In this case, it wasn't tea but slices of cool melon, served to the sweating troops who spent an hour crouched on a plastic tarp covering the dirt floor of the house in this hamlet in northern Afghanistan.

But the phrase "three cups of tea" has entered the American troop lexicon as shorthand for any leisurely, trust-building chat with locals. It is drawn, as legions of readers can attest, from the bestselling book of the same title by former mountaineer Greg Mortenson, who has devoted himself to establishing girls schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

With its inspirational tone and idealistic worldview, "Three Cups of Tea" would seem an unlikely primer of military counterinsurgency.

(More here.)