Cultural Mistakes in Military Operations

Paper Summary:

The paper asserts that the United States government and ultimately the United States Army have continually failed to understand the importance of cultural awareness while conducting military operations both at home and abroad. The paper first discusses how cultural insensitivity made the reconstruction effort in the US after the Civil War unsuccessful and then looks at how the US government's continued displacement of Indian-Americans during the westward expansion as well as the government's approach to the Mexican revolution all led to conflict. The paper then looks at the Philippine Insurrection and explains why it was successful and follows this with a discussion of the current deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan that have created several cultural issues and which have arguably fueled a vibrant insurgency. The paper concludes that the current battlefield situation requires all members of the unit to obey cultural aspects of the society since the key to success is winning over the people.

Outline:
Abstract
Reconstruction
Indian and Mexican Operations
Operations in the Philippines'
OIF and OEF Cultural Issues

From the Paper:

"The United States government and ultimately the United States Army have continually failed to understand the importance of this cultural awareness while conducting military operations both at home and abroad. These failures have hampered several military operations and even affected foreign policy forcing governmental leaders into tough decisions that have affected our standing in the world order. Currently the lack of understanding of certain aspects of Arab and Muslim culture have forced government leaders to change policies in the current execution of operations in support of the Global War on Terror. A study of several operations can assist in the understanding of these failures and prevent future shortcomings."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Andrews, F. L. (2002). THE PHILIPPINE INSURRECTION (1899-1902). Louisiana State University: The Interdepartmental Program in Liberal Arts.
• Burnett, E. (2002, FEB 10). Reconstruction. Retrieved FEB 12, 2009, from Civil War and Reconstruction: http://www.mrburnett.net/civilwar.html
• McFate, M. (2005, APR 10). Anthropology . US Army Professional Writting Collection , pp. 20-29.
• Poncho Villa Home Page. (2001, FEB 11). Retrieved FEB 10, 2009, from Mexican Revelotion: http://www.ojinaga.com/villa/
• Synovitz, R. (2008, SEP 07). MISTAKES BY AFGHAN TRANSLATORS ENDANGER LIVES, HAMPER ANTITERRORISM EFFORT . Retrieved FEB 12, 2009, from eurasianet.org: http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/pp090708.shtml

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