Quote:
Originally Posted by Imperator
anyway heres one I cannot help thinking about-Obama argued that our military's Arabic translators in Iraq are needed in Afghanistan: 'We only have a certain number of them and if they are all in Iraq, then its harder for us to use them in Afghanistan,' he claimed.
Afghans don't speak Arabic.
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On that one, I have to say that it could have been a slip-up, but he is also (perhaps coincidentally) correct. We do need more Arabic translators in general, and they are needed in Afghanistan as well.
In Afghanistan, we are generally not fighting against Afghanis; we are mostly fighting against foreign fighters (Saudis, Egyptians, Yemenites, etc.) who make up the core of Al Qaeda and their cohort flunkies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They likely use Arabic as a common language since they all know it natively or from their studies of the Koran.
I'm not sure Obama would have thought all this out just to make a point in a speech, but I think people pushing this "gaffe" are incorrect if they assume we need no Arabic translators in the Afghan theatre. It's much less important to score political points than it is to employ an informed strategy in combating terrorist organizations.