This Is The Army Views
Without a doubt, the comprehensive agenda of briefings, one-on-one interviews, and weapons demonstrations offered delegates — including reporters from Time, Al-Ahram, and Arab News — a comprehensive understanding of how the US Army recruits, trains and prepares soldiers for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The program also revealed how American commanders have learned from some of their best-known mistakes: the scandalous mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib military prison and the virtually effortless capture of several uniformed personnel — including Army Private Jessica Lynch — at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.
Lieutenant General Robert L. Caslen, Commanding General, US Army Combined Arms Center, the “CAC,” at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, said the Army is keen to use lessons learned from the field to enhance how Army Soldiers are trained and to expand the educational experience of mid-career military officers graduating from the CAC.
The press tour, called “Bridging the Gap,” was jointly sponsored by the CAC’s Command and General Staff College (sometimes known as the “Intellectual Center of the Army”) and the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas. Costs were underwritten by the McCormick Foundation, a nonprofit organization created by one of the founders of the Chicago Tribune.