Speaking as someone who's been through military language training, most oriental langauges, or Arabic, or Pashtu aren't things you pick up overnight.

They all take at least a year for a student to reach a basic level of competency, a year in which that student can do pretty much nothing (i.e. kill bad guys) other than study that langauge.

Of course, this basic level is the foundation for fluency, which is acquired by contact with natives, which American soldiers are currently getting in spades.

Over the past 40 years there's been no dearth of American GIs fluent in Korean, German, and Japanese. In a couple years time we'll be able to say the same about Arabic, Pashtu, and a couple other languages.

Soldiers are for killing people - as far as I know one doesn't need to speak the language of the enemy to kill them.

Kaplan makes the mistake of assuming our soldiers are our cultural evangelists. They aren't - our businessmen are - and they don't learn arabic or pashtu because they don't have to - Arabs and Pakistanis and Indians and Russians, etc. are desperate to do business with rich Americans.

HD: You've got to acquire some basic language skills to interact with the girls who hang around the front gate...

Shelton, Kaplan isn't talking about basic infantry here. He is talking about the Green Berets who are supposed to be counter-insurgency experts who talk with the locals, build up native forces and train them. They need the language skills to do that. If you disagree with Kaplan on this, then you are disagreeing with US military doctrine.

Its much easier for special forces and MI to find native speakers and work through them. They're much cheaper, and nobody cares if they happen to die.
Most of the foreign-language speakers in the military don't even speak with people; they spend most of their time transcribing recordings.
It would be counterproductive for the military to have too many combat soldiers speaking to foreigners. They might find out more than they need to; they might actually sympathize with Middle-Easterners, instead of operating with the prejudice that they are all terrorists.
One of the first steps in conducting every war is to dehumanize the enemy; cultural ignorance accomplishes this.
The fact that most of our soldiers cannot speak the language of those they kill does not disprove any kind of conspiracy theory; if anything, it goes to show how carefully managed our military policies are.

Thats what translators are for -- the US military agrees. Learning a foreign language takes years of practice - by the time our green berets learned arabic they'd be out of Iraq and thousands of miles away traning forces in _______. Its childishness to critique US soldiers for not knowing local languages. They'd have to be Kenneth Hale to be fully prepared for where their carreer might take them.

This is just another juvenile "ugly american" argument topped off with "americans can't handle all this power and its about to come crashing down around them" argument. How long have we heard that one?

Shelton
How long have we heard that one? Actually, historically speaking not for that long. And even if it was for a long time, its no reason to dismiss the argument. Just because we aren't in an obvious crisis now (from where your sitting) doesnt mean were not heading for one fast.

If there is no evidence of the coming fall then its a matter of faith. Leftys have faith that the US will collapse under its own hubris - I disagree. Ever since the 20's the left has been warning of the fall of our nation - their cheif contention with the right today is that in spite of all their predictions it was communism and not the American Way that finally came crashing down.

Shelton
America's writers were predicting its fall in the late 19th century because they saw the damage that unrestrained capitalism could inflict upon itself and everyone else.

ahhh, another homage to Fukuyama. Well, I guess the Communists must have felt pretty cool too when the Fascists went down.

If you don't see any evidence of possible disaster that American, and the rest of the world, is heading for, then I really can't argue with you, because you must really be purposefully blinds to a lot of things happening in the world.

Phil: Ooh, this should be fun. Please give us just a couple of examples--ok, even one--of why America and the rest of the world are headed for an imminent disaster. 'Cuz from where I sit, besides the fact that we've somehow pulled off the trick of being both the world's largest AND most dynamic adaptable economy, and that with practically no effort or expense we have the most powerful military the world has ever dreamed of and getting stronger every day, and that we still attract more immigration than the entire rest of the world, I can't think of a single reason to be optimistic...

b:

I thought he meant they should be killing English-speaking people.

oj: Maybe he's referring to the impending collapse of the Republic caused by the Harriet Miers nomination?