Germany (catch all, incl. terrorism)

[goesh]

Distance, high tech killing doesn't require visceral fear and loathing that can only be attached to those wanting you dead first and God knows we love our technology. The clinical is the antithesis of the emotive. Adrenalin jolts, partial paralysis, tunnel vision, acid reflux, shaking, slow motion perception of real time and blurred auditory reception precede instinctive action based on fight or flight instincts. These psychic jolts as I call them can't be overcome by cultural awareness and sensitivity. The Clinical/analytical can't sharpen the emotive to prep the psyche for what has to be done and it never can. So on the one hand you have to condition young minds to kill, on the other they need to be culturally sensitive. I think cultural relativism has no real place in Army/Marine boot camp but must come later. The precepts of COIN put the individual Marine/Soldier more on a one-to-one basis with the indigenous people and that alone dimishes stereotypes and negative perceptions of them simply as human beings better than any seminar can. Certainly the onus of this need must bear significantly heavier on the Officer Corps than the enlisted ranks.I've been watching that PBS show about Iraq and already 2 years ago the necessity of interacting with humans as humans was being put in play, yet in the course of an ambush videoed, someone yelled "####" and you could tell that was the word being used and it got bleeped out. What a hoot! Here the Public is supposed to be getting the real deal, yet they are denied a full plate. It reminds me of the firing of Don Imus in which it is now acclaimed that cultural harm to Black people has taken a big hit, yet nothing is being done about the denigrating rap music and other cultural things whose message and impact is 100 times that of Imus. I think this same analogy can be applied in attempting to sensitize reactive instinct that must be fast and brutal. In short, one should not proclaim too much success in this endeavor but certainly progress can be expected and demanded. Lastly, Sarajevo you should realize that the concerns you expressed have been well anticipated already and mechanisms put in place for correction and improvement a long time ago already.

[bismark17]

You can almost hear the strains of, Ich Hatt Einen Kameraden, or Deutschland Uber Alles while watching that video....

[tequila]

I suspect if there is large scale residual use of deregatory terms, its by folks who made the initial 2003 (maybe 2004) deployments, but none since or the train up that accompanies them. Our soldiers are becoming culturally saavy, and astute. The only other people I've heard use deragatory terms were some of the people who never left the FOB or interacted with Iraqis (Arab, Kurdish, Turkoman, or other) as people.

I'll note that this may be the case for some, but many Marine veterans I know who have just returned from a third deployment had some rather, shall we say, insensitive things to say about Iraqis. To be clear, these are guys who have lost friends over there.

This is, of course, not everyone.

[Stan]

Hmmm, let's go back a few years. George however was never exposed to PC

"We want to get the hell over there. The quicker we clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest, too. Before the Goddamned Marines get all of the credit."
- General George S. Patton, Jr
(addressing to his troops before Operation Overlord, June 5, 1944)

[Tom Odom]

Hate Your Enemy! “Our men do not ordinarily hate. They must hate. They are better soldiers when they hate. They must not fraternize with prisoners-must not give them cigarettes and foodthe moment they are taken. Hate can be taught men by meticulous example. The Rangers are so taught.”

It was a different time and it most certainly was a very different war...

Tom