Understanding the Enemy

[ODB]

How we think we can:

a. Figure out another culture

b. Figure out why they do what they do

c. Figure out how to change them

When we can't even do it in our own country.

That just might be the problem, stop putting so much thought into, crush their "nuts" and eventually they'll get tired of it or run out of people......

[MikeF]

How we think we can:

a. Figure out another culture

b. Figure out why they do what they do

c. Figure out how to change them

When we can't even do it in our own country.

That just might be the problem, stop putting so much thought into, crush their "nuts" and eventually they'll get tired of it or run out of people......

That leads to the real questions we don't seem to want to ask...

1. What are we doing?

2. Is it possible for this to work?

3. Why are we doing this?



v/r

Mike

[jcustis]

That leads to the real questions we don't seem to want to ask...

1. What are we doing?

2. Is it possible for this to work?

3. Why are we doing this?



v/r

Mike

I think we often don't like to ask the questions because framing them the right way is hard, or permits a sense of weakness to invade...and finally we often do not like the answers that are likely to arise, even if they speak the truth.

[ODB]

That leads to the real questions we don't seem to want to ask...

1. What are we doing?

2. Is it possible for this to work?

3. Why are we doing this?



v/r

Mike

Unfortunately what works for one will not work for the next, but is there a common ground that can be exploited?

[MikeF]

the answers to those questions, but I don't.

However, my concern is if they are not asked, then we will continually do the same thing over and over again.

[marct]

That leads to the real questions we don't seem to want to ask...

1. What are we doing?
2. Is it possible for this to work?
3. Why are we doing this?

v/r
Mike

I think we often don't like to ask the questions because framing them the right way is hard, or permits a sense of weakness to invade...and finally we often do not like the answers that are likely to arise, even if they speak the truth.

Very good points, JC.

the answers to those questions, but I don't.

However, my concern is if they are not asked, then we will continually do the same thing over and over again.

Pulling off of JC's comments, and getting back to the original post, have you noticed that few in the US (or outside it) buy into the narrative offered? Most "answers", if they aren't of an "X=Y" form, tend to be implicit stories, i.e. they have a meaning, moral and story line attached to them. The story about bringing democracy to _____ (fill in the blank) isn't selling well, mainly because there is a lot of comptetition.

Will we do the same thing over and over? Probably... most cultures do.

[Ken White]

"Why are we doing this" holds the key to the other two.

If there is no good answer to that final question in the eyes of the beholder -- not in the eyes of he, she or they who made the commitment to do 'this' whatever it was -- then the other issues become clouded and people get confused.

For example, attacking Iraq made perfect sense to me on the basis that we had responded poorly or not at all to 22 years of provocations emanating from the ME. Having lived there for a while and thus having some small insights into the prevailing mentality there, I took it for what it was (to me and simplistically here stated); a massive response by the entire Tribe to numerous assaults on the dignity of the Tribe in the form of typical desert pin-prick raids which of themselves are not terribly effective or harmful but which do tend to erode the superior position of the Tribe. Thus, in my view, the attack was worthwhile and made a great deal of sense. I believe that my view was shared by some, particuarly in the ME (who none the less objected because they didn't like the precedent).

A more west-centric view would discard my thought process and opt for the belief that the attack was ill advised. IF the west-centric viewer in question was sorting out TTP or solutions to use in Iraq, the probability is that some bad decisions would be made simply because the 'why' quotient was not known or was misunderstood...

Thus, as Marc says, "most cultures do" make the same mistakes over and over because they do not do a good job of determining why they are doing what they are doing -- or of properly explaining why they are doing what they are doing. Proper understanding by all concerned of that last point is the factor that causes confusion on the answers to the other two questions.

That's why WW II got broad popular support (on both sides), the 'why we are doing this' was quite clear and unambiguous. Most wars since then have been poorly handled in most regards because even the fighters weren't sure why they were doing what they were doing. That, I suspect will get worse before it gets better.

[MikeF]

We're trained that if we are stuck in restricted terrain and misoriented, then we stop, take a knee, pull out the map and compass, and reorient ourselves...

I don't see why that simple tactic should not be applied to many other issues.

v/r

Mike