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...ordered them "Stand, turn your backs on the crowd and walk away."
His informed directives saved lives. In the Arab culture, a blank face indicates hostility while a smiling face conveys friendship. The Soldiers' turning their backs on the crowd showed trust. Because of their commander's knowledge of Arab culture, the Soldiers were able to defuse this dangerous situation.
CNN caught this now famous incident on tape and aired it, hailing these Soldiers as "heroes of war" who saved American and Iraqi lives by demonstrating their valor and restraint. The commander of that unit, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry (2-327 IN), 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), then Lieutenant Colonel Christopher P. Hughes, clearly made his command decision based on cultural intelligence. (1)
Military commanders increasingly are becoming aware of the critical link between cultural intelligence and success in the contemporary operating environment (COE). For Field Artillerymen serving in FA, maneuver or other nontraditional units in the War on Terrorism (WOT), cultural awareness enhances their ability to conduct operations with Arabs or other foreigners. This is especially true not only for commanders at all levels, but also for those who serve on fire support teams (FISTs) and as fire support officers (FSOs) and effects coordinators (ECOORDs), coordinating and conducting nonlethal effects, such as information operations (IO) and civil-military operations (CMO).
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Even so, we at the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Culture Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, still hear the argument that training for the unit mission allows little or no time for cultural awareness training. Another argument is that "War is war! We are in WOT to keep terrorists off US turf!"
This article discusses the importance of cultural awareness training for WOT, the needs and priorities of the Iraqi people in comparison with Americans', and techniques to demonstrate cultural awareness and most effectively execute the mission. Some of these basic techniques include identifying leaders, respecting elders and socializing with Arab contacts.
If we listened to our military transition teams (MiTTs), border transition teams (BTTs) and special police transition teams (SPTTs) returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, we clearly would hear the message that cultural awareness training is important. They say that cultural training would have better informed them and facilitated their missions--but training was either nonexistent or deficient before they deployed.
For example, see the article "So, You're Going to be on a MiTT. What Do You Need to Know?" by Captain Jared R. Kite, et al, in the November-December 2006 edition. This article discusses the team's lessons learned in Mosul and the relevance of "soft cultural skills" to their mission.
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TRADOC's Operations Order (OPORD) 05-123A for Professional Military Education (PME), October 2005, identifies cultural awareness training as one of TRADOC's top three training initiatives. In response, the Culture Center developed a training support package (TSP) to teach units about Iraqi and Afghan values, beliefs, behaviors, norms, ancient history, culture and religion. The ultimate goal is for this training to make Soldiers more aware of cultural differences and treat the Iraqis and Afghans with dignity and respect, making the Soldiers more effective in WOT deployments.
The fact is that cultural awareness enhances Soldiers'...
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