Military academy scraps Vietnam for Iraq

This year, for the first time, the U.S. Military Academy has scrapped its Vietnam-era summer training for scenarios drawn straight from Fallujah and Ramadi. The idea is to train tomorrow's military leaders in warfare that's emerging today in Iraq and Afghanistan — a stew of tactical maneuvers, police actions, cultural conflicts and negotiations, all framed by the laws of war.

The cadets' superiors break down what went right and wrong. The good: they survived. "You'll die here two or three times a day," Maj. David Phillips tells them. "But you only die down the line once." And they successfully followed some key steps: Taking it slow and steady — by talking, then warning, then firing a warning shot, then firing a lethal weapon. Staying calm, trying to negotiate.

But they wound up with a dead man who may have been innocent, an enraged cousin bound to fuel anti-American sentiment or more direct action, and a live bomb — if they hadn't exploded it with the imprecise machine gun and injured or killed themselves. Another cadet warns that the way it played out would just do more damage to the perception of the American effort in Iraq. (Agreed).

And then Robert Pecha, a 19-year-old from Sonoma, Calif., pipes up. "Sir, I've got a question about shooting him again. Is that allowed at all or are you going straight to jail?" Phillips nods his head: The victim was no longer a threat, so no follow-up shots should have been fired.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060805/ap_on_re_us/a_lesson_in_war_1&printer=1