Quote Originally Posted by Stan View Post
This will in effect allow common soldiers and analysts to not only understand the Arabs (or Africans) better, but more importantly those nuances such as social taboos. Although I’m very effective on my own, it took years to get ‘there’ and I had nothing more than 13 weeks of language training to prepare for my tour. That barely prepared me for anything Estonian.

Paul and I (we were both previously station in Africa) have observed how a typical military situation can rapidly escalate from ‘calm to a firefight’ over little more than a misunderstanding. One could simply say that 50% of the blame was the African that didn’t understand the circumstances or situation, and fair enough.

But what we’d like out of our soldiers, is to remove the other 50% and level the playing field. The other good news about simulation training is getting shot, does not result in death
I have these visions of a scene in the movie "Men In Black," the one where during marksmanship testing with the military's "best of the best," Will Smith/James Edwards blows away the sim of the little girl carrying the physics book rather than the aliens being blasted by everyone else. I would be very impressed if our situatonal awareness training would allow a successful graduate to be able to give the kind of explanation that Smith gave for his action:

Quote Originally Posted by http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119654/quotes
[in a shooting range, confronted with numerous menacing-looking targets, Edwards shoots a cardboard little girl]
Zed: May I ask why you felt little Tiffany deserved to die?
James Edwards: Well, she was the only one that actually seemed dangerous at the time, sir.
Zed: How'd you come to that conclusion?
James Edwards: Well, first I was gonna pop this guy hanging from the street light, and I realized, y'know, he's just working out. I mean, how would I feel if somebody come runnin' in the gym and bust me in my ass while I'm on the treadmill? Then I saw this snarling beast guy, and I noticed he had a tissue in his hand, and I'm realizing, y'know, he's not snarling, he's sneezing. Y'know, ain't no real threat there. Then I saw little Tiffany. I'm thinking, y'know, eight-year-old white girl, middle of the ghetto, bunch of monsters, this time of night with quantum physics books? She about to start some ####, Zed. She's about eight years old, those books are WAY too advanced for her. If you ask me, I'd say she's up to something. ...