At first, you begin to resent yourself for starting to sound like the ETT's you first met when you arrived in country; the ETT's you hated for their inability to understand the local customs and their non-effort to learn the popular language. But once you've been burned, swindled or even robbed a few times, the reality sinks in and you switch very quickly and very naturally back to survival mode, which is where I am right now. I'm still the combat medic presiding over my ETT team, but I've resigned my collateral duty as mentor to the ANA.
As a Senior Chief I am ashamed that a "combat medic" suddenly finds himself all in a snit that he has to go to a foreign country in time of war to find that there are... (horrors!) foreign people there. If I was there and this was peacetime I would pull his sorry ass for an excuse of a Corpsman and send him on MTT with the USS Mercy on a West Africa medical tour so he can see TENS OF THOUSANDS of suffering snotty, malarial, mercilessly unhappy people who only wait for that once in a lifetime visit by competent docs.

Well, I'm not a corpsman and I don't play one on TV but I have been to every nasty part of the Middle East and Africa and if you don't go to the heart of darkness thinking "Wow thats weird but ... OK I'll roll with it." then it will suck every time.

As a sailor however, once my pointy hat with star is on I would kindly remind him that these very same people people, without any guidance and understanding of Americans save what they saw on illicit Bollywood video night in Jalalabad allowed a very intelligent and competent group of well educated mass murderers to study, practice and train on that very soil with the intent to kill idiots like him at every opportunity. Those people understood them and treated them like brothers ... sexfests, stolen cookies, lefthand wipe and all. They were al equal in the eyes of Allah.

I was at the Pentagon on 9/11 so I have a special "I-Hate-You" for AQ that would make me suffer through any hardship I'd need to to not have to see my servicemembers burn to death or my fellow citizens jump 100 floors or 250 firemen crushed to death by 200 stories of steel. I'd live in any 3rd world hell to ensure that ... oh, in fact I have! I love it and offered another job I'd do it again in Iraq, the 'Gan, Somalia, ... anywhere. I'm an Arabist so I love this stuff, you... you're under orders to order #1-love this stuff.

Love your locals because if and WHEN the Talib and AQ come they will be finished with their smokes and sexfests and looking for their day of martyrdom or your head on a video. In fact your death and parading your gear off of your dead body would make a great trophy to show back on the village DVD in Khost or on Youtube!

For me, I'd laugh at my trainees silliness and guide them... with a few cigarettes or condoms or whatever they need within their cultural limits... I have had my gear stolen... a new issue TC-2001 helmet with $1500 of dual command headsets ... by an American right from my desk in the Republican palace... I've seen our own idiot solders say "Sorry we shot at you but you're not in uniform." Stupidity happens in every culture. Maybe they look at you and say... 'man those American guys sure are sexually frustrated. At least this keeps us away from heroin and a "I-want-your-women" knife fight in the local village' and those IEDs.'

'So, uh, What do you think Senior Chief?' Well Captain, this sailor needs to be assigned to a squad of ANAs as squad leader and a Pashtu/Dari dictionary of tactical commands... alone. Either that or to the fleet for immediate redeployment to Iraq (and to a COB, not a FOB) where maybe he can stuff his whining about Afghanistan and practice his skills. Please Poseidon, Neptune and Davy Jones, I beseech you... Make it happen!