Believe it or not, this was actually the theme of an oddball, but pretty entertaining, war movie!
In The Beast," Starring: Jason Patric, Patric stars as a Russian tank soldier in Afghanistan. After his tank gets separated from other Russians, the crew tries to get back to Russian lines, but gets lost. Eventually, they freak out in the harsh, (and just down right freaky) Afghan conditions (very vividly depicted -- kind of a tank version of "Apocalypse Now") and Patric takes off on foot only to be captured by Afghani "freedom fighters." He _invokes_ an ancient Muslim custom of asking for mercy (with some specific word) and the Muslims, after discussing the issue, consent to spare his life, but hold him as prisoner. So, he gets to observe this really weird culture first hand. The film makers did a really great job showing this character as he deals with being a soldier in Afghanistan. (I don't want to spoil it, but no it's not a sappy, left-wing cop out ending of the guy "going native" and coming to love & respect the enemy.)
Mark W.