My Hardest Choice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

My Hardest Choice - Essay Example The two options had both merits and demerits that I had to consider before settling on one choice. The scholarship presented me with the offer of having good education and an American graduate certificate that could qualify me for a good employment and a nice life. American life could make me a dependent and mature person. This would make me a responsible person and help me stop depending on my mother for everything. Moreover, the open-mindedness of American people enabled me cope up with life in America easily. The people are not hostile and this helped me fit in with the new environment. However, I had to also consider the demerits of taking the scholarship. This included staying away from my beloved family members and friends that I had been used to being close to them. Moreover, adapting to the new culture, strange food and unfamiliar language in the new country would be such a hard task for me. Adult people have to take painful decisions in order to succeed in life. Success in life calls for one to make costly sacrifices with an aim of getting the fruits of this sacrifice later. I came to realize that taking the scholarship was the right choice I had

Critical Thinking Essay Essay Example for Free

Critical Thinking Essay Essay Critical thinking includes the component skills of analyzing arguments, making inferences using inductive or deductive reasoning, judging or evaluating, and making decisions or solving problems when evaluating academic content. Background knowledge is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for enabling critical thought within a given subject. Critical thinking involves both cognitive skills and dispositions. These dispositions, which can be seen as attitudes or habits of mind, include open- and fair-mindedness, inquisitiveness, flexibility, a propensity to seek reason, a desire to be well-informed, and a respect for and willingness to entertain diverse viewpoints. There are both general- and domain-specific aspects of critical thinking. Empirical research suggests that people begin developing critical thinking competencies at a very young age. Although adults often exhibit deficient reasoning, in theory all people can be taught to think critically. Instructors are urged to provide explicit instruction in critical thinking, to teach how to transfer to new contexts, and to use cooperative or collaborative learning methods and constructivist approaches that place students at the center of the learning process. In constructing assessments of critical thinking, educators should use open-ended tasks, real-world or â€Å"authentic† problem contexts, and ill-structured problems that require students to go beyond recalling or restating previously learned information. Such tasks should have more than one defensible solution and embed adequate collateral materials to support multiple perspectives. Finally, such assessment tasks should make student reasoning visible by requiring students to provide evidence or logical arguments in support of judgments, choices, claims, or assertions. Critical thinking is an important element of all professional fields and academic disciplines when evaluating academic content. Within the framework of scientific skepticism, the process of critical thinking involves the careful acquisition and interpretation of information and use of it to reach a well-justified conclusion. The concepts and principles of critical thinking can be applied to any context or case but only by reflecting upon the nature of that application. Critical thinking forms, therefore, a system of related, and overlapping, modes of thought such as anthropological  thinking, sociological thinking, historical thinking, political thinking, psychological thinking, philosophical thinking, mathematical thinking, chemical thinking, biological thinking, ecological thinking, legal thinking, ethical thinking, musical thinking, thinking like a painter, sculptor, engineer, business person, etc. In other words, though critical thinking principles are universal, their applicat ion to disciplines requires a process of reflective contextualization. Critical thinking is considered important in the academic fields because it enables one to analyze, evaluate, explain, and restructure their thinking, thereby decreasing the risk of adopting, acting on, or thinking with, a false belief. However, even with knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning, mistakes can happen due to a thinkers inability to apply the methods or because of character traits such as egocentrism. Critical thinking includes identification of prejudice, bias, propaganda, self-deception, distortion, misinformation, etc. Given research in cognitive psychology, some educators believe that schools should focus on teaching their students critical thinking skills and cultivation of intellectual traits. Socratic method is defined as a prolonged series of questions and answers which refutes a moral assertion by leading an opponent to draw a conclusion that contradicts his own viewpoint. Critical thinking skills through Socratic method taught in schools help create leaders. Instructors that promote critical thinking skills can benefit the students by increasing their confidence and creating a repeatable thought process to question and confidently approach a solution. Students also accomplish follower-ship skills that can be used to probe the leaders foundations. Critical thinking skills through Socratic method serve to produce professionals that are self-governing. However, Socratic method for critical thinking skills can become confusing if an instructor or leader uses the method too rigidly, the student may not know what the instructor or leader wants from him. An instructor or leader may disillusion the students if he uses particular style of questioning. Instructors must reveal their reasoning behind the questions in order to guide the students in the right direction. Socratic method can serve twenty-first-century leaders to instruct students, mentor protà ©gà ©s, motivate followers, advise other leaders, and influence peers. In conclusion, â€Å"critical thinking is the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best  thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances when evaluating academic content. The general goal of thinking is to figure out some situation, solve some problems, answer some questions, or resolve some issue It also is a process in which a person pursuits reliable and pertinent information about the world. Critical thinking is often described as reasonable, ruminative, trustworthy, and a well practiced form of thinking that assists people with deciding what they should believe in and what actions should be taken. A practiced critical thinker will ask good questions, collects pertinent data, categorizes common characteristics, logically reasons with the new data and then he or she will come to a trustworthy and dependable conclusion. Critical thinking makes use of many processes and procedures. Some processes include but is not limited to asking questions, making judgments, and identifying assumptions.

Whitmans Song of Myself and The Nature of Life Essay -- Song of Mysel

Whitman's Song of Myself and The Nature of Life Identifying the mystery of existence, Whitman writes "Song of Myself," section six to question the nature of the life of man. He alludes to and confronts past answers to this query by utilizing as his central image the leaves of grass. In the Christian tradition, the Bible utilizes this image of grass to describe the lives of men. Isaiah, a prophet of God cries out, "All men are like grass . . . and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, . . . but the word of the Lord stands forever" (Isaiah 40:6-8). The scriptural image of men as grass, "the handkerchief of the Lord," places man in relation to God and establishes the transient, finite nature of man. Whitman responds throughout this poem to the Biblical answer to the question of life. Emphasizing the cyclical process of nature, Whitman constructs his poem to insist that the life of man, as in nature, moves not with linear progression, but rather in a cyclical succession. Birth and death, Whitman asserts, serve not as bookends to a concise life span, but rather as connections in a larger continuum of existence. Whitman utilizes an imagist technique relating a series of associated images through a central connection. Whitman first presents the reader with the image of a small child offering up grass with the question, "What is the grass." In light of the scriptural connection Whitman provides, this query "What is the grass" from the lips of a child presents the larger question of what is man. Whitman chooses not to answer this question directly, but rather to present possibilities and proffer the question back to the reader, stating "How could I answer the chil... ...ot ceased to exist but rather now continue their existence "alive and well" in the ambiguous "somewhere." Whitman will not accept the Biblical understanding of death as a passage to either heaven or hell. He claims instead that "to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier." This fortuitous death he would apply to every man, not reserving destruction for any man. Death, if it truly exists, for Whitman, leads only "forward to life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it." Stating "All goes onward and outward . . and nothing collapses," Whitman affirms the view of man's earthly life as a succession rather than a progression and claims for man a part in a larger cyclical continuum of existence. Works Cited: Whitman, Walt. Song of Myself. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd ed. Ed, Paul Lauter. Boston,NewYork: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.

History Other :: essays research papers fc

Mikey Ritualistic Sacrifice in Ancient Greek Mythology The ritual of sacrifice in Greek literature played a prominent role in societal influence, defining many aspects of their culture. Sacrifice was the foundation of moral concern, as well as an effective means of narrative development in Greek tragedy. The thematic reoccurrence of sacrifice in Greek literature reveals its symbolic importance. At a time when politics and religion were one in the same, sacrifice was crucial in regulating governmental issues. Tragedies manipulate rituals in order to portray a community’s current sense of order or disorder. The pattern of sacrifice typically entails conflict between the needs of an individual and those of a community in crisis, ultimately resolved in favor of the community through willing participation of the sacrificial victim (Easterling 188). Rites of sacrifice serve to rectify corrupted relations, and maintain moral balance. The social order of Greek life is constructed, by sacrifice, through irrevocable acts; religion and political existence were thoroughly integrated forcing all other life functions to reflect this foundation. In Greek literature, the role of sacrifice served many functions. The literal meaning of sacrifice, in most instances, juxtaposes the consequences of its perpetrations, ultimately establishing beneficial results. Most importantly, sacrifice was the basis of the relations maintained between men and gods, establishing a means of contact and interaction. Additionally, the practice of ritual sacrifice helped to classify the gods, and differentiate them from one another: double aspects of a single deity, hierarchical relations between two dietes, or the outstanding nature of one particular deity. And finally, sacrifice functions directly to clarify the political rights of each individual and reveal the structures of their social body (Sissa and Marcel). However, various implementations of sacrifice can possibly induce different res ults depending on the direction of the interaction. For example, sacrifice can take place between a god and animals, humans, or another god thus revealing rites both of, and to mythological gods. Mortals made sacrifices at any time, to any god during the occurrence of something that fell with that deity’s’ jurisdiction, or as a payment of a vow (Sissa and Marcel). Rites of sacrifice were also the focus of many cultural festivals in which additional purposes were combined, such as rites of initiation, purification, fire, blood and oath. These rites presented themselves in all facets of Greek culture, producing ritualistic transfers of virtue, possessions, and power seeking to redress past injustices or to return existence to the status quo.

Persuasive Memo

TO: Harri Karvinen, President FROM: Saurabh Mishra, Regional Manager of Sales DATE: 19th July, 2009 SUBJECT: Review of proposal to eliminate STP On behalf of all the regional sales managers and the salespersons in TeknoSport, I would like to put forth this request to kindly review the pending decision to eliminate the legendary TeknoSport’s Sales training programme(STP). Being part of the business for a long time, and from the rich ground work experience that we all believe we have, we feel that STP has been at the forefront of pitching TeknoSport into a position that it enjoys right now. STP has been an integral part of the success story of TeknoSport and there are various reasons for which there is a need to continue the STP. They are enlisted below: †¢Rigorous training before on-the-job training – STP takes the new employees through a rigorous 5 day schedule, adapting them to the skills which differentiates an STP salespersons from the rest †¢Holistic training – STP incorporates the accumulated learning of various salespersons over so many years. This would not be provided by a buddy system where scope is limited to just one mentor †¢Training of long time sales personnel – Currently, there are no programs in place which would train the long time sales personnel with the new products, new methodology and new communication systems in place. This is very crucial for our successful salespersons to adapt to the changing paradigm †¢Employee Satisfaction – STP is one of the major contributors to employee satisfaction in our firm. It provides an enriching experience to the long time sales persons, and to the new employees, it imparts new confidence levels and makes them feel important to TeknoSport. Apart from that, it helps them learn the new communications systems, thus enabling them in better workload management, making them more efficient †¢Contribution to success – Our success has been driven by amazing performances by our sales personnel. Our innovative products are definitely important, however, if not for the amazing skills and knowledge shown by our sales personnel trained in STP, none of our products would see even their first customers †¢Employee Retention – STP has been the biggest factor in reducing employee turnover in our company. If we need to maintain the same, we need to continue STP, as it is undoubtedly the biggest favorite amongst all our employees and has lready proved to be the single most important contributor to reducing employee turnover Instead of completely eliminating STP, we can think of other alternatives, for example †¢Combining STP with the suggested buddy program †¢Shortening the duration of STP †¢Providing STP to certain percentage of sales personnel and then spreading the learning through buddy system †¢Making it biannually instead of quarterly To cut a long story short, we believe that STP has been at the heart of TeknoSport’s success story. Our USP is our superior, highly knowledgeable team of Sales Personnel, which are being churned out by STP year after year. Elimination of STP would compromise the quality of our sales personnel as well as their satisfaction levels and this is bound to have a major impact on our market position. Even though STP requires investment on the part of the company, these investments provide unparalleled long term benefits both in terms of our success as well as employee satisfaction. To cut down STP would be to cut down the driving force behind our success. We earnestly request you to kindly review the proposal of eliminating STP in light of the arguments purported by us and to look into the alternatives. Attachments – Employee ratings of STP, market survey, customer survey

I Love My Country Essay

I love my country. I am proud to be a Canadian. We live in a beautiful land; we have ample natural resources; we have a long peaceful history; we are a truly multicultural nation; we have made major contributions to the advancement of society; and we are, all in all, a great people. Canada is the second largest land mass on earth — and what a beautiful country it is! Surrounded by three oceans, it has an incredible variety of landscape. From the vast, pure, arctic north, to the breathtaking Rocky Mountains, to the prairies, through the rocky Canadian Shield, the fertile farmlands of southern Ontario and Quà ©bec, to the picturesque Maritime Provinces, Canada is amazing. Each region has its own beauty. Our cities are filled with exciting things to do; our small towns are welcoming and rich with history; our farmlands are abundant and peaceful. In my southern Ontario home, I can enjoy four beautiful seasons and, within little more than an hour, I can be experiencing the country’s largest city, resting along the shores of the Great Lakes, or hiking through wilderness trails. I cannot imagine anywhere else on earth with such beauty and diversity. Our amazing landscape also provides us with many natural resources, which we have learned to harvest. Hydro power from Niagara Falls, abundant forests and fish stocks, fertile farmland, rich oil fields — the list is long. We have more than enough to help ourselves and, along the way, we have ample opportunities to help the rest of the world. Our wealth gives us so many advantages and, I think, special responsibility in the â€Å"global village.† One of the things about Canada which makes me most proud is our peaceful history. Certainly, we have been involved in wars and, when necessary (such as in World War II), Canadian soldiers made a major difference. But the Canadian mentality is oriented towards peace. Our troops are peace-keepers, not aggressors. Our instincts are to resolve our problems through negotiations, not bloodshed. Both in our relationships with other countries and in our internal problems, we tend to avoid violence. Even in our most difficult divisions –around the treatment of native peoples and in the Quà ©bec separatist questions –violence is rare. It does happen; there are always people who will be extreme. But we have never had any all-out wars, and I doubt that we ever will. Our attitude towards peace also contributes to our relative safety. Of course, there are incidents of violence in Canada. The Montrà ©al massacre of 11 years ago and recent episodes of school violence come readily to mind. However, both our laws and our collective sensibility makes us less likely to experience violence. We don’t have to worry about being shot when we walk outside our doors. In an increasingly violent world, we can still feel safe and secure in our homes. I am particularly grateful for Canada’s diversity. Canada truly is a multicultural nation. In Canada, people of different colours, races and religions live together. We don’t have neighbourhoods which are defined as â€Å"white† or â€Å"black†. We learn from one another and, in my opinion, our lives are richer for the opportunity to share in such varied experiences. The world is also greatly enriched by the contributions of Canadians. A Canadian team, led by Drs. Banting and Best, discovered insulin. Another Canadian, Joe Naismith, created the game of basketball. Canadians invented the mechanical arm which is used on space shuttle missions. And, perhaps most importantly to all teenagers, one Canadian, Alexander Graham Bell, revolutionized communication with the invention of the telephone! Canadians have, as well, had a huge presence on the world stage. From diplomats such as Lester Pearson to entertainers such as Celine Dion, the world has come to know and love Canadians. But it’s not just the famous who make Canada special. Everywhere I go in this country, I meet wonderful, welcoming people. When I read the works of Canadian authors, watch Canadian television, read Canadian magazines, I know just how special our country is. Canada is my home, and I want it to stay the way that it is. I love this country and, at this difficult time, I am counting on those in powers in this country — the politicians and the adults who elect them — to believe that Canada IS worth saving, and to work to save it.

Cultural Awareness in an Asymmetric Environment

I believe all experienced military leaders, both noncommissioned and commissioned, realize the importance of knowing every facet of the enemy and their environment. Throughout history, we have studied, witnessed and experienced great examples of the use of cultural knowledge during combat operations. Lieutenant Colonel T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia) of the British Army documented his experiences while living among the Arabic people. He learned about their society and culture in order to improve his military expertise (McFate, 2004). With constantly changing interests, influences and enemy TTPs in today’s asymmetric environment, Soldiers on all levels are often focused on new strategies, equipment and tactics and unintentionally lose focus on the importance of cultural awareness. In today’s contemporary operation environment, cultural understanding and knowledge is a key element to successful counterinsurgency operations. This paper will stress the need for intensifying cultural awareness training in preparation for today’s asymmetric warfare and will emphasize the effectiveness of this principle of war. Cultural Awareness in an Asymmetric Environment Any WWII or Korean War Veteran can probably tell you how the phrase â€Å"combat operations† had a completely different connotation back in their day. Where conflicts of the past may have been focused on manpower, fire superiority and maneuver, today we are focused on variables like sociological demographics, politics and economy. Currently, U. S. forces are engaged in asymmetric warfare where the insurgents are adapting their strategies to avoid the direct fight and attempting to exploit the weaknesses of U. S. forces. The insurgents have the upper-hand; they know the customs, geography, influences and people and are able to maneuver unnoticed. To combat this, we have adjusted our training by implementing cultural familiarization in pre-mobilization training and inserting COIN doctrine into many leadership courses. However I argue that Soldiers on all levels, but especially the junior leaders and tacticians who are often engaged in the midst of the local populace, do not fully understand the value and second/third order effects of properly implementing this principle of warfare. Today, more than ever, we need to focus our training on cultural awareness and employ this knowledge to reverse the trend of the insurgency exploiting our cultural ignorance. Argument Just as a college football coach studies the footage of their opponent’s previous games; we need to study the norms, interests, relationships and socio-political patterns of our operating environment. In the last decade, we have taken measures to emphasize this principle of war but most significantly the publication of FM 3-24 has developed doctrine to defeat counterinsurgents with lessons learned in combat. It teaches the importance of cultural awareness in an asymmetric environment and stresses to avoid imposing our ideology of what we think is normal upon a foreign society (2006, p. 1-15). Today’s COE demands a more robust pre-mobilization training package on the culture, language, geography and anthropology. Training for this principle of warfare has been trivialized to higher-level familiarization of COIN doctrine and lower-level â€Å"check-the-block† pre-mobilization training. We need comprehensive training that involves every Soldier and incorporates advanced studies with scenario based exercises. Sergeant Elkhamri, a U. S. Army translator that spent 18 month with a Special Forces unit in Iraq, explained that the way to increase the Iraqi support in our fight against terrorism is to â€Å"improve the quality and increase the quantity† of pre-mobilization cultural awareness training. He further emphasizes how the we cannot expect deploying Soldiers to get a full understanding of Iraqi culture in a two hour PowerPoint class (2007, p. 110). The Philippine Insurrection The Philippine Insurrection is one of the strongest examples of how the lack of cultural respect and understanding can render significantly negative effects on military operations. From the American stand point, the Philippine Insurrection should have been a quick and easy conflict. Originally, the U. S. deployed with 20,000 troops in order to quickly quell the insurrection. After the realization that the resistance was not going to collapse quickly, troop strength doubled, tripled and finally peaked at 74,000 by the end of the conflict (Wikipedia, 2009) . In short, this stemmed from the U. S. underestimating the importance of cultural understanding by disregarding the Filiopino culture. The U. S. also demostrated that it was their duty to rescue the Filipino people by imposing American democracy upon them. This mindset, which was evident among U. S. military leadership in the Philippines, is sometimes apparent to this day. The Philippine Insurrection is one of the lowest points in U. S. military history. The Filipinos were often described by American military and media as uncivilized, fiendish savages. The U. S. ilitary strategy was executed with no consideration towards the local populace. American Soldiers tortured, mutilated and even decapitated Filipino troops. There were reports of U. S. Soldiers shooting surrendering Filipino troops and burning entire villages to the ground (Wikipedia, 2009). Picture these atrocities happening in America to Americans by a foreign military force. I would bet that we would have an enormous insurgent force of enraged Americans. Human nature dictates that the Philippine people would react the same way, and they did. The insurgency grew as word spread of the atrocities. Agoncillo described how the Filipino troops would exceed American brutality on some prisoners of war. He told stories how ears and noses were cut off and salt applied to the wounds; other reports described captured U. S. Soldiers being buried alive (Wikipedia, 1990). This cause and effect cycle was mutually destructive; in the end, both sides were blatantly breaking the Laws of War. John White was one American that understood the effectiveness of cultural understanding. He was a former American soldier that served as an officer in the Philippine Constabulary and led foreign indigenous troops in combat. His experiences served as a perfect example of the positive effects achieved by applying cultural understanding. In 1928 he wrote a book describing how he built a unified and highly effective combat unit of indigenous people that were both Muslim and Christian. These specialized squads would hunt down the insurgents into their own domain and defeat them in battle. Some of the keys to his success were emphasizing common soldier skills, trusting the integrity of his troops, treating his subordinates and their cultures with respect and adapting proven army methods to the native culture. He became fluent in Spanish and lived among his soldiers and the native people (2009, Dimarco). White was hugely successful in overcoming the insurgency by understanding their culture and adapting his knowledge of combat operations and tactics to fit his operating environment. Operation Iraqi Freedom The roots of the problems we face in Iraq stemmed from the strategic level. McFate, explained how some policy makers misunderstood the tribal nature of the Iraqi culture and assumed that the government would remain stable even after Saddam’s regime was overthrown. Consequentially, without any governmental structure the tribes assumed control and once the Ba’thists lost their power, the tribal network became the backbone of the insurgency. The Iraqi tribal insurgency was born from American cultural ignorance (McFate, 2004, p. 44). Cultural misunderstanding continued to be our weakness with the misinterpretation of certain symbols and gestures. American forces often associated the black flag as the opposite of surrender but among the Shia population it is a religious symbol. Consequently, many Shia who flew the black were shot unnecessarily for displaying their religious beliefs. Another example is how the American signal for stop was often misinterpreted since this gesture means welcome in Iraq; as you can imagine, this resulted in tragedy as well (2004, p. 44). In 2006, Elkhamri witnessed numerous appointments of powerful political figures solely based family-ties and political affiliations. He met Iraqi Commanders who were promoted from lieutenant to lieutenant colonel exclusively for political reasons. Naturally, these shady antics did not go over well with the local populace. With a better under ¬standing of the social-political framework, leaders could prevent these situations and earn the trust and respect of the community (2007, p. 111). Inversely, understanding the culture and society of your COE can positively impact military operations. By recognizing that pre-existing social structures were key to political stabilization, British Brigadier Andrew Kennett implemented historical lessons learned by adjusting to local cultures and understanding the inner workings of the tribal hierarchy. He learned that the most important element of the Iraqi society is the tribe and their supporters and observed the tribal relationship between currency and loyalty. Knowing this, he appointed tribal leaders to the local councils and gave them money to distribute. By doing this, he empower the sheiks and gained favor with the local tribes (McFate, 2007, p. 45). General Odierno understood how the structure of any insurgency always mirrors the structure of the indigenous society; with this notion he tasked two junior intelligence analysts to construct a chart in order to locate Saddam. By identifying, depicting and tracking key figures’ nterrelationships, social status, and last-known locations, this intelligence led the 4th ID troops directly to Saddam Hussein (McFate, 2007, p. 45). This turning point in the war stemmed from the leadership’s knowledge of the Iraqi society and culture. Counter Argument There are some that believe cultural understanding is over rated and over emphasized. In some military subcultures, hardened emotions and apathy towards your enemies’ culture and interests correlates to strength, courage and fearlessness. Some argue that the Warrior Ethos contradicts with cultural understanding and COIN doctrine. Many years ago, my friend SSG Delagarza jokingly said, â€Å"My definition of hearts and minds is two in the heart, one in the mind† and yes, we all laughed because that was part of being in that subculture. There are situations where this hardened mindset is essential to mission success, but just as we need to select the right weaponry for each planned target, we need to select the proper approach for each military operation and situation. Selecting the proper weaponry and the proper approach is a key decision that is based on thorough analysis of every aspect of your enemy and AO. Cultural knowledge of your enemy goes hand in hand with the strategy and tactics used to defeat them. A former commander and one of the hardest Rangers I ever met used to always tell us, â€Å"You got to be hard AND smart. † It was a simple little phrase that we usually ignored but it’s always stuck with me. Now that I have grown as an NCO and leader, I realize what he was saying. There are times to use your brawn by showing overwhelming aggression and firepower but there are also times to use your intellect by employing the most efficient methods to handle a situation. As a young first sergeant I learned the hard way. There were times my hard charging methods of demanding battalion staff NCOs to â€Å"do their job and fix the problem† may have worked, but in due course I realized that I was destroying critical relationships and losing all rapport with supporting elements. The secondary effects were evident by the lack willing support from these same staff sections for months to follow. Ironically, the trickle-down effect eventually affected the ones I was so adamantly fighting for, my Soldiers. Conclusion I believe the U. S. will always overcome any military adversary with our verwhelming land, sea and air superiority, advanced intelligence, technology, weaponry and training but at what cost? In today’s asymmetric environment, direct action may not always be the best option. The finesse of properly executed cultural diplomacy may be an effective force multiplier. There is a significant need to train every Soldier on effectively implementing cultural understanding, especially at the lowest level. With an advanced understanding of our COE’s culture, society, geography and anthropology we could achieve success swiftly, efficiently and most importantly with considerably less casualties. References https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine%E2%80%93American_War http://louisdimarco.com/Occupations/Reviewbulletsandbolos.pdf