It would be funny if people weren't dying because this wasn't addressed

[Felix Mala]

Evidently when it comes to the military having plenty of people who can speak Arabic, process trumps progress. But really folks, when you're operating under the mindset that it's our duty to kill everyone and God's duty to sort them out, is it so important for our guys to understand other languages?

http://www.slate.com/id/2116330/

How Many Government Agencies Does It Take To Teach Soldiers Arabic?
A pathetic case of Pentagon incompetence.
By Fred Kaplan
Updated Wednesday, April 6, 2005, at 3:47 PM PT

I've just read one of the funniest and saddest government documents I've run across in years. Published by the Pentagon (the source of most such things) under the title "Defense Language Transformation Roadmap," it details the official plan for improving foreign-language skills among U.S. military personnel. The plan is meant to fill an urgent need. It was ordered by the deputy secretary of defense, administered by the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, and coordinated with the service secretaries, combat commanders, and Joint Chiefs of Staff. And to read it is to see, with your own increasingly widening eyes, the Pentagon's (or is it the federal government's?) sheer inability to get anything done on time.