Posted on 03/30/2007 6:31:12 PM PDT by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — After three days of talking about cultural awareness, plans are in the making for another conference in 2008.
The first Training and Doctrine Command Cultural Awareness Summit was a success, but the consensus is that more conferences are needed to help the military, educational and industry institutions do even more, said Col. John Bird, director of training, development and support at Fort Huachuca’s Intelligence Center. One speaker at the event said that if the summit had been held two years ago, all the attendees could have fit in a 15-passenger van.
But nearly 350 showed up for this week’s conference.
A lot of “good networking” occurred, Bird said, as participants grappled with the importance of cultural awareness as the United States continues its war on terrorism and looks to other potential conflicts it may face.
While the emphasis was on Iraq and to some degree Afghanistan, Bird said everyone knows there will be other areas in the world where cultural awareness will be critical to combat problems.
The event was sponsored by TRADOC Culture Center, whose main office is in Sierra Vista.
The facilities director, Maj. Remi Hajjar, said there will be the traditional Army after action reports about this year’s summit that will be used to prepare the one to take place in Sierra Vista next March 25-28.
Bird said the first summit was “a tour de force.”
There is a war on, Americans are dying and Maj. Remi Hajjar takes three days to explain why we should be nice to "different" people, as opposed to how to kill them when they try to kill us.
Did I miss something, or have the Ayatollahs in Iraq been conducting touchy-feely seminars on how to be nice to American soldiers who are dying trying to save their country?
They should have done something useful, such as a three day seminar on the care and feeding of the Rifle, shoulder fired, gas operated, fully automatic, M16.
Ah, I figured the first completely clueless response to this story was only a matter of time.
It's about understanding the nature of other cultures so you can relate to them to get useful intelligence, people liking you so they tell you where the terrorists are hanging out, etc.
Not an exercise in political correctness.
Training and Doctrine Command Cultural Awareness Summit Executive Summary: "Kill them but don't hurt their feelings."
Regardless of what you say or do, they are ready to kill you for their "faith" at any moment.
Example, One MOS 61K, a thorasic surgeon, spent 12 hours saving a young girl. The father invited the doctor to his house to "thank him", where he proceeded to pull a .380 and shoot the "infidel" doctor.
Bad Ju-Ju
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