U.S. Army struggles to grasp foreign cultures

[cynatnite]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army plans to train its officers to think like their enemies and better understand foreign cultures after an Army report found that no one could have envisioned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Small groups of officers soon will take classes in cultural anthropology and cross-cultural communication as U.S. troops continue to battle insurgents daily in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Academic experts welcomed the move, but said reshaping the U.S. military would be difficult, given continuing reports of religious intolerance at military institutions and charges of detainee abuse abroad.

The Army's report, released last month, concludes that even seasoned analysts failed to predict a strike of the magnitude of the 2001 attacks because they based their assessments on U.S. culture, values and reasoning.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050710/us_nm/arms_usa_culture_dc

[justinsb]

1. Training the soldiers won't help

If the politicians and general public aren't better informed. If anyone in the Bush administration had even a basic knowledge of the history and culture of Iraq, the US never would have gone, had the public a basic knowledge and understanding the politicians wouldn't have been able to launch such a war. What point is there in having soldiers who know better than to do what they are being ordered to do?

[FlemingsGhost]

2. Still trotting out the "no one could have envisioned" bullshit.

Yawn ...

[Jackpine Radical]

3. U.S. Army struggles to grasp foreign cultures...by the throat.

[Taxloss]

4. The films shown to the American GIs coming to the UK to help us in WW2

are still shown quite regularly. They're very funny, and very sweet and well meaning.

"Great Britain is about the same size as Idaho. The people are friendly to the United States, but you may find the local language difficult to understand. Do not insult their King, or criticise the living conditions."

Or something like that.

[damntexdem]

5. U.S. Army struggles to grasp foreign cultures?

Like, the culture of the U.S., at least before the Bushistas took over?