Cultural Training: Life of an Afghan Army Soldier

Training the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) has become one of the most important missions of US military personnel in Afghanistan, and the emphasis on this area will only increase over the next two years. This presentation offers the perspective of an individual, fictional Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier with regard to the challenges of cooperating with foreign counterparts as well as the 'don'ts' of Afghan culture that are sometimes inadvertently committed by foreign soldiers. The overall idea behind this presentation is to offer a view point of an educated young Afghan man who has volunteered for the ANA as a committed nationalist and seeks to defeat the 'enemies of Afghanistan.'