Fiasco at the Army War College?

[Bob's World]

Absolutely. Studying Islam, radical or not, will absolutely help one gain insights into the Taliban. Cultural fluency is critical if we're going to reshape the middle east.

Yikes! "Reshape the Middle East"??? And I thought the Intel guys were killing me with mission creep.

We certainly need to "Reshape our approach to the Middle East," but any efforts to reshape the actual populaces and governances there is likely not to be appreciated or effective; and lead to even greater depletion of U.S. Influence through futile efforts to get everyone else to simply conform to our wise and generous will.

Yes study Islam. Yes gain appreciation for the culture and concerns of the region. But don't then turn around and try to use that knowledge to exert your control over them. That's something "the bad guys" do, right?