Powerful Peace: A Navy SEAL's Lessons on Peace From a Lifetime at War by J. Robert DuBois

Author:J. Robert DuBois [DuBois, J. Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Special Forces, Military, Peace, Political Science, History
ISBN: 9781614481898
Google: 92cIHtWGtKgC
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Published: 2012-07-01T12:49:19+00:00

1991. Best Turkish friend Hayri prepares to correct me for yet another shockingly offensive, inadvertent mutilation of his language.

Cultural awareness is not some nice-to-have component in effective strategic and policy planning. It’s an essential piece. It’s a literal do-or-die piece. We should constantly seek to understand other ways of life, because today it is a matter of life or death.

That 1979 Afghan invasion ended in a humbling withdrawal. The Soviets met the same fate as every invader since Alexander the Great. Their experience in this case is frequently compared to the American experience in Vietnam.

I’d like to provide a more personal and recognizable anecdote from my own past to demonstrate the dangerous absurdity of misunderstanding:

Ali was a Turkish friend of mine during a year’s assignment to a remote base in his country. We enjoyed spending weekends downing Efes beer and shish kebab at our restaurant hangout down by the beach. One fateful night, however, he surprised me with an outburst of violent hostility. Looking back, I know that with a much deeper contextual understanding I could have seen it coming and, as Director Turner said, “warded it off.”

There was a Dutch tourist staying in our little coastal town, and it was no secret Ali also had his eye on her. When I finally finagled a dinner date for one Saturday night, I naturally felt like the winner of the Rob vs. Ali competition for female attention. It was probably a mistake to arrange that dinner date for the same club where he and I normally partied….

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.