Marcus Griffin is not a soldier. He is actually a professor of anthropology at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va. He is part of a new Pentagon initiative, the Human Terrain System, which embeds social scientists with brigades in Afghanistan and Iraq, where they serve as cultural advisers to brigade commanders.

Griffin believes that by shedding some light on the local culture -- thereby diminishing the risk that US forces unwittingly offend Iraqi sensibilities -- he can improve Iraqi and American lives. He describes his mission as "using knowledge in the service of human freedom."

The Human Terrain System is part of a larger trend: Nearly six years into the war on terror, there is reason to believe that the Vietnam-era legacy of mistrust -- even hostility -- between academe and the military may be eroding.