There's nothing uncivil or irrelevant about this posting.  

My points reflect hard cultural realities in both Iraq and Afghanistan. 

If you REALLY want to know what it's like on the ground, trying to do security and stabilization ops with Iraqi and Afghani forces (embedded, joint ops)....look up the following term:
Man-love Thursday

When I first heard the term during my work up for my second deployment to Iraq (my first tour was all kinetic, attack, no joint work with Iraqis; they were our targets), I didn't believe what my trainers/briefers were telling me.

Then about 3 weeks in country in Iraq I got complaints from my Marines about what was going on on Thursday nights. Disgusting. And totally against their own religious laws.