The "urban warfare" training area at Camp Pendleton? Has a mosque in its center.

[XemaSab]

I heard this from a friend today.

He says they've got a little town built there for urban warfare scenarios, with a mosque in the center of the "town."

A mosque, with a gold-leaf dome on the roof.

If the Iranian military, the Saudi military, or the Egyptian military had an urban warfare training center with a faux Christian church with a steeple in its center, there would be nothing but outrage from the American public, and rightly so.

Why does our military have a training center with a mosque? :shrug:

[Cant trust em]

1. Is it possible that this is just a rumor?

I'm going to need to see a picture or a story on this.

That being said, if this is true, it is completely reprehensible.

[XemaSab]

3. I heard about it from a guy who was there recently

I don't think he's a bullshitter.

I'd be more specific, but I don't want to get him in trouble. :(

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. 1.- could be a rumor

2.- There is a actually a valid reason and I'd love to have a church, a hospital, a school and a water treatment\ electricity distribution center as well

Ok before you stone me... the military trains as it fights, fights as it trains, and one way to teach these kids that a mosque is mostly off limits is placing one in there

When is it ok to fire on one? If I am taking fire from one... that is when it looses its neutrality

Oh and talking as a Red Cross Medic who's had to enforce them conventions and once was shot at, quite legally mind you, after my kids did a major no-no... and lord knows I was the training officer.

Go ahead, I did not drive the point clearly enough or the boys with guns really scared them...

[XemaSab]

4. This is a good point you're making

That being said, it's sort of hard to argue that it's not a war on Islam and the Arab world when the military is that transparent about where we're going to be fighting. :(

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Except that most kids have no freaking clue what a mosque looks like

when they join...

And we are fighting a war where mosques have a very specific architecture.

if I had my way... I'd bring all the troops home tomorrow... and also prosecute senior enlisted and officers who enabled war crimes.

[guruant]

5. I can confirm they do, as I've....

trained in areas such as this. There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for 'mosques' in these training centers. These areas have a lot of makeshift 'Iraqi' towns that we run scenarios in. Obviously one scenario that can be run is if your convoy or unit is taking fire from a mosque. We would then use the correct procedures that need to be taken in that situation. It's not meant to offend anyone or actually replicate a real mosque, it's just meant for training purposes.

[PoiBoy]

8. Hey guruant... welcome to DU...

...thank you for your service, and your informative post...

:hi:

[XemaSab]

11. Cool! Thanks!

I'll tell my friend that! :hi:

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Stinky The Clown]

6. I think you're making more of this than it is.

There are legitimate reasons to build a middle eastern 'urban' area. There are legitimate reasons to have a gold domed mosque in such a training ground. Like maybe to tell people what NOT to shoot at?

Kinda like those police training ranges that have pop up people that cops are supposed to decide in a split second if they should shoot or not. Some of the pop-ups are bad guys, but some are kids. Are they training the cops to shoot kids? I don't think so and neither do you.

[Rosemary2205]

9. Would that be a BAD thing?

IF they are using said building (and it's only a building NOT an actual mosque) to teach soldiers to be culturally sensitive while also doing their jobs without murderizing civilians and also coming home in one piece then I say more power to them.

[madeline_con]

10. Got it!

Video here. Note the crescent moon on the building at the beginning:

http://www.nctimes.com/movie/combathunter0208/viewer.html

Notice this: Greg Williams, a civilian contractor who works as a combat profiler and helped develop the "Combat Hunter" training program, says he teaches Marines how to "read the human landscape."

He's the same "civilian contractor" seen being interviewed in the video.



Finding the enemy hidden in plain sight
March 10, 2008
By Chelsea J. Carter
Associated Press

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — Marine Capt. Brian Iglesias saw a man go from store to store, talking with shopkeepers in Ramadi, Iraq. Outwardly, there was nothing unusual about the man. He looked like everybody else.

Later, as Iglesias and his unit rolled through town, they saw shopkeepers board up their stores. And then it happened. The Marines were shot at — caught in a rolling street fight that saw one of their own killed. The man, Iglesias learned, had been warning shopkeepers of the pending ambush.

"We walked into a trap," he says.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Mar/10/ln/hawaii803100314.html

[XemaSab]

12. Cool!

Thanks!