TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS – Here in the middle of the rain forests of Central America, the United States military is painstakingly misapplying the lessons it learned from the War on Terror to the War on Drugs.

A soldier makes contact with tribal elders from the turret of his desert-patterned Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Vehicle, after getting stuck in a mud puddle.

"Salaam Alaikum," shouts Specialist Lenny Barnet to a group of Honduran farmers.

The farmers, who are overwhelmingly Spanish-speaking, just stare back blankly.

Specialist Barnet is just one of 600 soldiers who make up Joint Task Force-Bravo, a US military unit that has been helping the Honduran government fight narcotics traffickers in Central America.

According to Colonel Ross Brown, the commander of American military forces in Honduras, before his unit deployed he was given instructions by General Douglas Fraser at US Southern Command to pay strict attention to After-Action Reviews (AARs) coming out of Iraq and Afghanist…