Coaching US troops on Iraqi culture

US officials say the military is transforming to meet the changing face of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. BBC Arabic's Roula Ayoubi reports on a new "cultural training" programme to improve US soldiers' skills in dealing with local people.

The US military has built two "Iraqi towns" in a California desert
"Assalamu alaykum, Ahlan wa sahlan, welcome." With these words, Iraqi sheikhs greet a group of marines in a narrow room at the beginning of a training session.
The class is part of "Mojave Viper", a new pre-deployment cultural training course established to prepare US forces for what the military calls "irregular warfare" in Iraq.
The meeting starts with a prayer suggested by the group's Iraqi interpreter, who wears a marine uniform.
"No matter where we are, in Wadi Sahara or in Khalidiya, we are working as one for the good of this city, and as long as we are one, we will get the best results, Insha'allah," says the "mayor" of Wadi Sahara, addressing the marines.
Despite what the blue-domed mosque nearby suggests, the training is not taking place in Iraq but rather in Wadi Sahara and Khalidiya, two fictional Iraqi towns built in the middle of the Mojave desert, in California, as part of a $23m project.
The Iraqi "sheikhs" are mostly Iraqis recruited as role players.
Marines' challenge
The Centre for Advanced Operational Culture Training is the new military body specialised in "improving marines' cultural skills and foreign language abilities".
Barack Salmoni, deputy director of the centre, says the focus reflects a 2006 military assessment that "developing broader linguistic capability and cultural understanding is critical to prevail in the long war and to meet 21st century challenges".
During the six- to eight-week course, the marines learn about 200 basic words in Arabic - enough to allow them to deal with local people on the ground in Iraq.
Choosing his words carefully, the marine commander in the training session tries to explain the difficulties US forces face in building trust.
We noticed that we had the military tactics but lacked the knowledge of Iraqi laws and traditions so we needed to learn about them all
Barack SalmoniCentre for Advanced Operational Culture Training
"While my marines are dedicated in working with the Iraqi army and police to eliminate the threat from insurgents, we know that the enemy insurgents hide among the people and that the people are not our enemy," he says.
And, of course, the problem goes both ways.
"The local population is becoming intimidated because they don't know who to trust," reserve army commander Lieutenant General Jack Stultz says.
In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, the administration of US President George W Bush excluded "nation building" in Iraq and Afghanistan from its plans.
But, Mr Salmoni says, the US military became aware of the need to give the troops' mission in Iraq "civil and cultural dimensions" when the Bush administration decided to establish a new Iraqi government.

The US military is trying to teach troops how to build trust with Iraqis
"We noticed that we had the military tactics but lacked the knowledge of Iraqi laws and traditions so we needed to learn about them all. I am afraid we didn't anticipate all these bifurcations."
Since January, newly established PRTs (Provincial Reconstruction Teams) have increased their operations in Iraqi cities.
The military is becoming more involved in "civil affairs", which entails helping to build local infrastructure.
And this, says Lt Gen Stultz, means "the Reserve Army, like the army, is in transformation".
He believes that the civil affairs teams "can do more to build the trust" with the population.
The reservists are the main force in the civil affairs teams in Iraq. And according to the Pentagon, only 260 soldiers out of some 200,000 in the Army Reserve speak Arabic.
Nonetheless, says Lt Gen Stultz, "if a person has a specific language skill that's a plus for us, but I'm not focused on recruiting Arabic speakers".
'Not only warriors'
Marines start their career in a Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia. There, I met Frank Mease, now a major in the marines.
He did the culture training before deploying to Iraq last year. He says that it "was preparing us to be able to execute our duties professionally and work with the Iraqis and with the local population.
"Our mission overall is to provide a secure situation to the Iraqi security forces to take over and to the Iraqi government to stabilise itself."

Marines must take the cultural training course before going to Iraq
Mr Salmoni acknowledges that the perspective on the military's role has changed.
There was a "misunderstanding when the Americans first arrived in Iraq," he says. The assumption was that their mission was "purely military".
But after the soldiers started this kind of training "the relationship with Iraqis got better," he says.
"There is a fundamental shift in what it means to be a marine. We are not only warriors any more, we are teachers, we are builders, we are doctors and engineers."
Cultural sensibilities
As the insurgency in Iraq has grown, raids on houses and mosques have become a daily event for the US military in Iraq.
These operations are performed mainly by the marines, who are required to undertake the cultural training programme if they are to be deployed to Iraq.

Soldiers are coached on dealing with questions on women and Islam
Joe Harris, the training centre's Arabic teacher, describes the main topics covered on the course as "religion, the importance of mosques to Muslims, the importance of family values, and how to treat men in front of their families and tribes, and how to conduct searches in houses and mosques".
Mr Harris, an American of Moroccan origin, is a former marine himself.
He considers Islam and the treatment of women to be particularly delicate subjects in Iraq - and has coached soldiers on how to deal with them sensitively.
When one marine major was asked in a cultural training session by one of the "tribesmen" if his battalion had any Muslims, he respectfully answered that eight of his soldiers were Muslim and that he was ready to introduce them to the tribesmen.
The second sensitive question he received was from another tribesman asking how many wives he had.
He cautiously answered: "I have only one... only one wife and we have five beautiful children together, but what I admire about Arab men is that they are able to marry four women and satisfy them all... I consider one wife a full-time job!"

Third of Iraqis 'need urgent aid'

Nearly a third of the population of Iraq is in need of immediate emergency aid, according to a new report from Oxfam and a coalition of Iraqi NGOs.
The report said the Iraqi government was failing to provide basic essentials such as water, sanitation, food, and shelter for up to eight million people.
It warned the continuing violence was masking a humanitarian crisis that had grown worse since the invasion in 2003.
It also found that four million Iraqis had been uprooted by the violence.
More than two million people have been displaced inside the country, while a further two million have fled to neighbouring countries, according to the report.
On Thursday, an international conference in Jordan pledged to help the refugees with their difficulties.
'Dire poverty'
The BBC's Nicholas Witchell in Baghdad says the report by the UK-based charity and the NGO Co-ordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI) makes alarming reading.
OXFAM/NCCI REPORT IN FULL
Rising to the humanitarian challenge in Iraq (324KB)
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The survey recognises that armed conflict is the greatest problem facing Iraqis, but finds a population "increasingly threatened by disease and malnutrition".
It suggests that 70% of Iraq's 26.5m population are without adequate water supplies, compared to 50% percent prior to the invasion. Only 20% have access to effective sanitation.
Nearly 30% of children are malnourished, a sharp increase on the situation four years ago. Some 15% of Iraqis regularly cannot afford to eat.
The report also said 92% of Iraq's children suffered from learning problems.

Millions of Iraqis have been forced to flee the violence, either to another part of Iraq or abroad - many of those are living in dire poverty
Jeremy HobbsDirector of Oxfam International
Alarming humanitarian crisis
"Basic services, ruined by years of war and sanctions, cannot meet the needs of the Iraqi people," the director of Oxfam International, Jeremy Hobbs, said.
"Millions of Iraqis have been forced to flee the violence, either to another part of Iraq or abroad. Many of those are living in dire poverty."
Mr Hobbs said that despite the violence, the Iraqi government and the international community could do more to meet people's needs.
"The Iraqi government must commit to helping Iraq's poorest citizens, including the internally displaced, by extending food parcel distribution and cash payments to the vulnerable," he said.
"Western donors must work through Iraqi and international aid organisations and develop more flexible systems to ensure these organisations operate effectively and efficiently."
Oxfam has not operated in Iraq since 2003 for security

Reporter Thembi Mutch spent seven weeks in Thailand and Cambodia, finding out what life is like for children trafficked into the region's thriving sex industry.

Many trafficked children have horrific stories to tellI arrived in Thailand on Friday morning, and by the evening my researcher and I were already scouring the bars of Bangkok, attempting to work out our game plan.
We were in the region to find children who had been trafficked into sex work - those who are hidden away, often by armed pimps and traffickers in suburban bars and houses.
Prostitution is illegal in Thailand, although women and men are allowed to do bar work over the age of 18.
But in both Thailand and Cambodia, sex work is so lucrative for everyone involved that it is more blatant than almost anywhere else in the world.
It is not just tolerated, but unofficially, according to many non-governmental organisations (NGOs), it is actively encouraged by both the police and the government.
Posing as tourists
A recent memorandum of understanding between the countries in the Mekong region - including Thailand and Cambodia - has done much to stem child prostitution.
So too has more 10 years of aid work and advocacy by NGOs such as Save the Children and World Vision.
But despite this, resorts like the Thai beach town of Pattaya seem to be more like industrialised brothels than functioning towns.
The sex industry has also expanded to Cambodia, with many children employed as domestic workers, bricklayers, in fish processing plants, while at the same time dipping in and out of the best paid option, sex work.
Most of these children are not there voluntarily - they are trafficked.
Trafficking is helped along by the economic boom in South East Asia. The frantic rate of construction springing up in the region has brought more staff with a desire for young sex workers.
It is not an easy task to pose as "interested tourists" in these areas. We hung out on the streets at night, and got information of where children were working from local sex workers.
We recorded in blacked-out vehicles, changed hotels regularly, and I could never let the recording equipment be seen, or check my recordings, until I was safely inside the hotel.
Once, in Cambodia, we recorded traffickers making deals of children over coffee in a cafe in broad daylight.
The atmosphere was hostile, and the men were clearly on hard drugs, and drinking.
"Who are these people," I muttered to Ang, the ex-prostitute who was my fixer.
"They're Vietnamese and Cambodian government officials," she replied, and my heart sank.
We left immediately, aware that it costs $50 (£25) to hire a hit man in Cambodia.
We were followed almost continuously that day, and also on several others. Men on mopeds and motorbikes would pull up beside us as we raced through the capital Phnom Penh - me clutching Ang's waist, sitting pillion on her moped.
They would take a good, thorough look at my face, and then fall back behind us.
Tales of trafficking
As for the trafficked children, their stories defy words.
A 15-year-old girl in Cambodia said her parents had sold her to a man for her virginity. The man had drugged and raped her whilst she was unconscious.

Girls can unwittingly find themselves put to work on the streetsAfter a week in the hotel room with this man, she was sold onto a brothel. There, she was gang-raped by 10 men posing as clients.
She escaped, by hiding in a rubbish bin, but was then tricked into prostitution again, staying for three years. Eventually she escaped, and knocked on the door of some strangers, who cared for her.
She then made a two-day bus journey to Phnom Penh, where she arrived three months ago.
I also met a chatty, bright and wide-eyed nine-year-old, who, under a mango tree in the countryside, described how she had been kidnapped from the streets of the capital, locked in a house for a month, and made to watch pornography and drink water with human faeces in it.
The traffickers know what they are doing. She and the other girls were beaten regularly and never allowed out - all part of a systematic campaign to break down the children so they were too confused to do anything about it.
These children did not even know what sex or trafficking is, and whether they will ever "recover" from their ordeal is an ongoing debate.

Space computer 'sabotage' probed (bbc)

Nasa is investigating the apparent sabotage of a computer due to be flown to the International Space Station on the Endeavour space shuttle next month.
The US space agency said the damage to wiring in a network box was intentional and obvious, but said it could be repaired before take-off on 7 August.
Nasa stressed that the lives of its astronauts had not been put at risk.
The discovery came as an independent health panel found astronauts had been allowed to fly after drinking alcohol.
The panel found that on two occasions Nasa astronauts had been allowed to fly despite warnings from flight surgeons and other astronauts that they were so drunk they posed a safety risk.
The panel was set up by Nasa to study health issues following the arrest on kidnapping and assault charges of the astronaut, Lisa Nowak.
Ms Nowak is accused of attacking her love rival, the girlfriend of a fellow astronaut.
The findings of the panel, which do not deal with Ms Nowak directly or mention any other astronaut by name, were reported by the trade journal, Aviation Week and Space Technology.
The official review into astronauts' medical and behavioural health is expected to be released by Nasa on Friday.
The agency has so far refused to comment on the allegations.
'Sub-contractor'
Nasa's Associate Administrator for Space Operations, William Gerstenmaier, said the apparent sabotage of a non-essential computer had been discovered earlier this month.
The damage is very obvious, easy to detect
William GerstenmaierNasa Associate Administrator for Space Operations
In graphics: Space station
"The damage is very obvious, easy to detect," he told reporters. "It's not a mystery to us."
Mr Gerstenmaier said wires had been found cut inside the unit before it had been loaded onto the shuttle.
The computer is designed to collect and relay data from sensors which detect vibrations and forces on the space station's external trusses.
"It's currently being investigated by the [Nasa] inspector general's office," he added.
The equipment had been supplied by a sub-contractor, he added.
Mr Gerstenmaier said engineers would try to repair the hardware before take-off in two weeks' time, but that the mission would not be delayed.
The damage is believed to be the first act of sabotage of flight equipment Nasa has discovered. (BBC)

Weapons delays hinder Iraqi army

The US-led coalition in Iraq has failed to deliver more than two-thirds of the equipment it

promised to Iraq's army, the US Defence Department has said.
The Pentagon said only 14.5m of the nearly 40m items of equipment ordered by the Iraqi army had been provided.
The US military commander in charge of training in Iraq has asked for help in speeding up the transfer of equipment.
On Wednesday, Iraq's ambassador to the US said the delays were hindering the fighting capacity of its armed forces.
Samir Sumaidaie said Iraqi troops were often "cannon fodder" for militants.
"There is general frustration in the Iraqi government at the rate at which Iraqi armed forces are being equipped and armed," he said.
"This is a collaborative effort between the Iraqi government and the government of the United States, and the process is not moving quickly enough to improve the fighting capacity of Iraqi armed forces."
"A way must be found to improve this process."
'Challenge'
The Pentagon said it was doing all it could to send out the items, with priority given to equipment that can be used for counter-insurgency.
It's a challenge - you can't do it overnight
Bryan WhitmanPentagon spokesman
It said some deliveries had been delayed by the export licensing process, while others had been affected by changes in orders.
"We share a common goal with the Iraqis that their forces should be equipped with the type of things that they need to include force protection equipment, mobility equipment, communications equipment," Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said.
"But it's a challenge. You can't do it overnight," he added.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Peter Pace, has promised to work on delivering the equipment to the Iraqi forces more quickly in the future.
Last week, Gen Pace was asked by Lt Gen James Dubik, who oversees the training of Iraqi forces, for help in improving the system.
Meanwhile, the latest weekly BBC survey of casualties in Iraq has shown that 416 people were killed in the period ending on Wednesday.
The figure is down considerably on the previous week.
A US military commander in Iraq, Lt-Gen Ray Odierno expressed cautious optimism at a slowing in US casualties, but said attacks on the heavily-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad seemed to be getting more accurate.
The survey is intended to assess the effects of the surge of American troops in Iraq. It is based on figures provided by the US and Iraqi authorities.