ARTICLE

June 2004

U.S. Military Training Fails to Grasp Foreign Cultures, Says Rep. Skelton

by Sandra I. Erwin

A thorough lack of understanding of the Iraqi culture, to a large extent, has contributed to U.S. setbacks in the occupation of Iraq, said Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo. To better prepare for future operations in foreign lands, the Defense Department should put more effort into “cultural awareness” training programs for military service members, he asserted.

“In simple terms, if we had better understood the Iraqi culture and mindset, our war plans would have been even better than they were, the plan for the post-war period and all of its challenges would have been far better, and we might have been better prepared for the ‘long slog,’” Skelton said in a speech to the National Defense Industrial Association’s annual award dinner.

He was the recipient of the 2004 Eisenhower Award, given to leaders in the national security arena. Skelton is the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.

“For a country that welcomes people from so many cultures around the world, the United States can be remarkably insular,” he said.

“Although many of our elementary and secondary schools provide excellent foreign language instruction, limited funds, teacher shortages and increasing standards in other areas often bring cutbacks to these programs. The result? We literally have a real problem speaking the languages of the world, but also in understanding the values and traditions of others.”

A select few service men and women are sent to school to receive intensive language and cultural training, said Skelton. But he cautioned that current programs fall short.

“I am not suggesting that every service member who is assigned to serve in the Middle East must be fluent in Arabic, but I think we must do a better job to prepare our forces for the cultural differences they will undoubtedly encounter.”

Skelton specifically asked the secretary of defense to take action on these matters. “I hope that cultural awareness will find a place in the curricula at the staff and war colleges,” he said. “I am certainly not the first person to call it to the attention of the Pentagon.”

Skelton also criticized the Bush administration for what he termed was poor performance in securing a broad coalition for the invasion of Iraq. “The American independent streak often serves us badly in the international arena, when our tendency to want to ‘go it alone,’ to solve problems without the help and cooperation of others, is counterproductive.

“The American government, like the American people, prefers quick solutions,” but in the world of international relations, patience is of the utmost value, Skelton suggested.

“The ‘my way or the highway’ approach cannot possibly win us friends or help us establish meaningful and lasting relationships. It does, however, have the potential to strain and potentially jeopardize otherwise longstanding alliances.”

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