CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A former Marine captain tells departing troops it's OK to talk to an Iraqi girl, but not a woman. Never admonish an Iraqi man in front of his family. And don't be surprised if someone introduces himself with a 40-second handshake.

Those edicts, delivered one January morning at this Marine base north of San Diego, are part of a new drive to increase troop exposure to Iraqi culture before they deploy. The Army is taking similar steps in an effort to avoid cultural missteps that plagued the military earlier and made it more difficult to win public support from Iraqis.

"Cultural understanding is a weapon," Edward Slavis, the former Marine captain, told about 150 Iraq-bound troops from the 1st Radio Battalion and 1st Reconnaissance Battalion. "You need to prepare for the war of ideas and beliefs through cultural learning and understanding."

Slavis, 27, works for the Center for Advanced Operational Cultural Learning, which the Marines established 18 months ago to make troops more sensitive to other cultures. CAOCL employs about 45 Marines, Arabic language teachers and cultural experts, and sends them to U.S. Marine bases to teach troops headed overseas.

Like many Marines, when he first went to Iraq in 2003, Slavis got only a half-hour briefing on Arab customs.

Now most Marines headed to the Middle East must take the CAOCL's four-hour seminar, which includes a rapid-fire history lesson. Classroom time is augmented by platoon-level classes.

An Army team based at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., travels the country to teach similar classes at Army posts. And for the past eight months or so, most new soldiers have been given up to 24 hours of cultural awareness training, said Army Col. Kevin Shwedo.

Soldiers are encouraged to share experiences in Iraq with the Center for Army Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Their comments are posted on an internal Army Web site.

The Army also hires Arab speakers to enact scenarios with soldiers before they ship out.

One Middle East expert said improved training in culture and language helps, but only to a point.

"This isn't something you can take care of on a two-week refresher course," said Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "You might be able to prevent some of the most egregious offenses. ... But in terms of doing something constructive, that takes a long time."

The troops are in a difficult position from the start.

"Think about if someone showed up at your house, loaded with body armor and weaponry, and communicated in pidgin English," Alterman said. "We have humiliated people."

In the war's early days, soldiers and Marines got limited cultural training. They pointed with their index fingers, patted down women for weapons and failed to recognize sacred sites —— and often found themselves at a loss when it came to interacting with the locals.

Now, most Marines are required to attend language classes. The basic installment lasts one week and teaches phrases for troops to meet and instruct Iraqis.

"It's like starting all over as a baby," said Pvt. Daniel Omler. "All English skills go out the window as far as grammar is concerned."

The enhanced cultural training comes amid several high-profile cases that involve U.S. troops accused of murdering and raping Iraqi civilians.

Camp Pendleton's commander, Lt. Gen. James Mattis, conceived the training center and insists the efforts are paying off in Iraq: "We had to create Marines that could read the cultural terrain as well as the physical terrain."