The controversy surrounding Montgomery McFate has pushed my blog far down on Google searches. I don't know the woman, but she waded into the hornet nest called the Gulf War providing sociology consulting for the US Military, to help soldiers better understand their dealings with people of the Middle East. For example, when US soldiers hold up their hand to stop Iraqi's from entering a checkpoint, many would, inexplicably proceed, often resulting in gunfire and death. To Iraqi's that hand gesture means "welcome". Training soldiers to communicate effectively means fewer fatalities due to miscommunication. Of course, the idea is to win the war, so the sociology is used to gain advantage in battle as well. I personally think it is better to wage war as humanely as possible, than to just shoot and ask questions later. However, war is hard to justify, especially when nuclear weapons are hard to find (either because they didn't exist, or more likely, given Saddam's treatment of the UN inspectors prior to the war, because they were moved to Iran before the Gulf War was engaged - why would he evict the inspectors if no weapons of mass destruction were to be found?).
In any case, Montgomery McFate has stolen the McFate spotlight for now. :-(
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