U.S.'s Cultural Ignorance Fuels Iraq Insurgency

[ECH1969]

The U.S. military's lack of understanding about Iraqi culture helped create the conditions for the insurgency that U.S. forces face there, according to a military adviser who has written a new book about the insurgency.

Between November 2003 and September 2005, professor Ahmed Hashim worked with U.S. troops in Iraq. His job was to try to understand the insurgents and what motivates them His new book is called Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Iraq.

Hashim, who teaches at the Naval War College, says he was surprised by how little the U.S. military understands about the culture, or "human terrain," of Iraq. That includes "societal networks, relations between tribes and within tribes, kinship ties."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5366677

[Erika]

1. W, Condi, Rummy don't have a clue

Maybe they'll send Karen Hughes over there again.

[kansasblue]

2. remember that the State dept....

wanted to run Iraq after the war for that very reason. But Powell was overriden by the Rumfailed/Chenny group and the Pentagon had control.

and the rest is bad history

[greenman3610]

3. I have read that Iraqi exiles meeting with Bush

as late as Jan. 03 were shocked to find that he
did not know about the Shiite / Suni division.

I am sure this was reported, can anyone confirm?