[lbo-talk] how not to run an occupation

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 12/12/06, Carl Remick <carlremick at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >From: Doug Henwood <DHENWOOD at panix.com>
> >
> >Just recorded my interview with Patrick Cockburn on his new book on  The
> >Occupation. He says: "There are 1000 people in the US embassy in  the Green
> >Zone in Baghdad, and six of them are fluent Arabic speakers."
>
> I hope he gave proper credit to Baker, Hamilton et al. -- i.e., from the
> Iraq Study Group Report, pg 60:  "8. U.S. Personnel  – The United States can
> take several steps to ensure that it has personnel with the right skills
> serving in Iraq. All of our efforts in Iraq, military and civilian, are
> handicapped by Americans' lack of language and cultural understanding. Our
> embassy of 1,000 has 33 Arabic speakers, just six of whom are at the level
> of fluency."
>
> <http://www.usip.org/isg/iraq_study_group_report/report/1206/iraq_study_group_report.pdf>

My Persian teacher says they spend even less money on Persian than
Arabic.  I'm encouraged.
-- 
Yoshie
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