It was a question borne of frustration at the local populace. Why, when they were the ones increasingly dying at the hands of insurgents, did they not fight back? It was downright un-American.

In fact, it is. The reasons most Iraqis have not taken up arms against those targeting them are myriad. And the reason the American captain had a hard time grasping the reason why was in no small part a function of American culture. He is a product of a culture that celebrates the lone hero, the victory in the face of insurmountable odds; a culture that rewards rugged individualism.

The Iraqis are from another cut of cloth entirely. That became clear during the invasion of Iraq, and far more clear in the subsequent occupation. One colonel likened dealing with the local populations to operating in a house of mirrors; he had to suspend everything he thought he "knew" and navigate his way using completely new and evolving rules.

"I think from what we've seen and read we just goofed, we made mistakes in how we treated people, how prepared for what we were going to be in the post-conflict," said Col. Jeff Bearor, the chief of staff of Marine Corps Training and Education Command. "We weren't as acute and astute as we are in preparing for combat."

"It's almost been a Band-Aid approach. The operational forces on the East and West Coasts had to figure this out on their own," he said.

Cultural training "is one of these things had we put more thinking into we'd have probably been more successful," he said. "I think we're all getting it now."

Fighting a war is one thing; hanging around for years afterward in an alien land to help rebuild the place destroyed by the war requires a different set of skills altogether.

The Marine Corps knows this from its own history. It was the Corps that produced in 1940 the book "Small Wars," dog-eared copies of which accompany many officers in Iraq and Afghanistan. A Marine general's translation of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" is one of the best known editions, and continues to influence Marine strategy. These books put forth, both explicitly and implicitly, the value of understanding an adversary's culture - the way it influences decisions and tactics, and how it ignites and settles conflict.

In May, U.S. Marine Corps will christen an effort to bring those waning skills - foreign language and cultural literacy -- to all Marines. The project will be coordinated at the new Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning at Quantico, Va.

Since the first rotation of Marines into Iraq - those replacing the ones who fought the war, a group known as "OIF 2" - all have undergone a week of classroom training on the specifics of Iraqi and Afghan culture. The need for cultural training became clear during the war experience, but also through discussions with the British Royal Marines, the French Marines and the Los Angeles Police Department, a senior Marine official told UPI.

"What community policing and counter-insurgent operations require are not new tanks and improved radios but improved cross-cultural communication. That is both anthropological and linguistic," the official said.

The curriculum for deploying Marines includes "culture, language, people and why it's important to understand how they view the world and how they turn that toward their advantage," Bearor said.

That is followed up by pre-deployment training, which hones Marines' skills in operating in and among civilian populations. Role players are coached to act like Iraqis might respond to American forces - scenarios drawn from actual experiences in Iraq -- and the Marines are charged with defusing or resolving the situation using what they learned from the course.

Such skills are less a new capability than a lost art, according to Bearor.

"Both the U.S. Marine Corps and the Army used to be pretty heavily engaged in small war - living in and amongst indigenous pops, working with local militaries and militias. Probably 40, 50, 70 years ago, we did a better job preparing ourselves than we do today," he told UPI.

"During the Cold War we focused so heavily on big war we forgot some of the lessons heard learned over history," he said. "If you don't understand the cultural terrain, you are missing part of their capability. The culture that you are operating in and around has got to be part of that landscape. You can't not take it into consideration.

"We thought technology would be supreme. What we've learned is while it's absolutely important, there is a human side in the sort of environment we are in now. You ignore it at your peril," Bearor said.

The program the Marine Corps is preparing is more than just a bromide to cultural understanding.

"We were neophytes when we started, looking at it with a simplistic view. What we are looking for are those embedded cultural issues - beyond the religious aspect -- to get a lot deeper involvement into what makes people tick day to day," Bearor said.

Every Marine who reenlists after his or her first four-year tour will choose or be assigned a region of the world or a country to study. Through class work and then online courses, they will learn the language to at least a conversational level and get an education in basic anthropology. Later they will specialize in their region.

"I would liken it to the first four to six courses a cultural anthropologist would get (in undergraduate studies)," Bearor said. "They'll get that initial plug of training sitting in a school seat. Follow-on courses will be done through distance learning."

Marines will get about 160 hours of language training, enough for survival and basic conversations.

"The language piece is a tough one, because you have to be able to sustain what people have learned. If you don't practice, you lose it quickly," he said.

Marines will be assigned specialties based on projections from headquarters about the likelihood of conflict or instability in a country or region. For instance, if the Marine Corps determines that over the next five to 10 years there is a 20 percent chance there will be a war with Iran, 20 percent of the Marines going through training will be assigned to study Farsi and Iranian history and culture.

There will be plenty of countries to choose from. By the Corps' own estimates, some 75 small wars are now ongoing around the globe.

"We are trying to build layers of expertise, so we have on call near-experts within the Marine Corps" no matter where the conflict, Bearor said.

Bearor said the Marine Corps has estimated it needs about 40,000 Marines with the cultural and language specialties for adequate coverage, and expects to put about 4,500 Marines through the program every year, with the curriculum and classes fully developed by October 2006.

As for the young Marines who will be expected to shoulder a much greater academic burden than ever before, Bearor is not worried.

"Don't sell these kids short. If you see what's going on right now and how they are stepping up to the plate ... they have a lot of capability they are perhaps not been tapped into yet."

That said, he hasn't figured out what will happen to Marines who don't complete their course work or who don't get passing grades.

Those small issues will be worked out over the next few weeks. What is not going away is the need to handle the softer side of conflict a little more adroitly.

"As we look downstream it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that with the global war on terrorism, post-Cold War capabilities like this are going to be very, very important to our success," Bearor said. "Obviously, this capability might keep us from having to fight the war. If we go in early we preclude having al-Qaida get their foot in the door, by helping the (indigenous people) understand what they need, and not stepping on their toes."