Military Review English Edition July-August 2016 | Page 105

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

(Photo by Sr. Airman Patrick J. Dixon, U.S. Air Force)

Iraqi Maj. Gen. Othman Ali Farhoud (left), commander, 8th Iraqi Army Division, shakes hands with U.S. Army Gen. John Abizaid 27 October 2005, Camp Echo, Iraq. Abizaid, an Olmsted Scholar who studied at the University of Jordan, Amman, is a fluent Arabic speaker and
an advocate of cultural and language training. “So much of the problem that we are facing in the Middle East is a cultural gap that can be
closed by earlier education in an officer’s career,” Abizaid said in an Armed Forces Press Service interview 26 May 2007.

First, war is a product of the clash of ideas and
beliefs. Ideas are not to be grappled with, much less understood, unless the cultures from which they emanate
are understood. A culture cannot be understood other
than through an in-depth knowledge of its language.
Second, history must be the handmaiden of those
who would be policy shapers. Those who ignore or eschew the importance of ideas and beliefs as propellants
of human action are on a fool’s errand. Moreover, to
comprehend and understand human cultures requires
grounding in such diverse disciplines as anthropology,
sociology, social sciences, brain science, psychology,
and much else. The tragic consequences of ignoring
MILITARY REVIEW  July-August 2016

these disciplines are readily found in the United States’
misadventures in Vietnam in the 1960s, Lebanon in the
1980s, and now the Middle East.3
The costs of failure endure for decades, if not longer.
The ignominy of Vietnam lingers still. El Salvador and
Honduras have deteriorated socially and economically into a state of near lawlessness after failed U.S.
interventions.4
Nor can ignorance be nullified by arrogance. The
legendary Gertrude Bell, a British colonial official who
a century ago made herself indispensable in a man’s
world, correctly remarked of the British mandate over
what was to become Iraq, “can you persuade people
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