Hmmm, whatever happened to O's passport records of his travels to Europe, the continent?
... entire premise (debunked BTW) of your diary, that Arabic translators aren't needed in Afghanistan how?
Hardly. Actually it's an appalling lack of interest on your guy's part. Reminsicent of a sitting president. You can shellac it, put in on a platinum player with a nice sprig of parsley on the side but it can't hide what it is.
Arabic in the Middle East is a lot like English in Europe.
Not sources I'd normally link to, but anyway.
http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/ article.php?articleid=2370097
After the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, he moved back to his hometown because war among the different jihadi groups disheartened him. At the end of the 1980s, he moved to the Gulf city of Dubai. When the Taliban established control over most of Afghanistan, he returned and became one of the close associates of Taliban chief Mullah Omar and assisted him in day-to-day routine governing matters. He remained there until the fall of the Taliban in 2001. In Waziristan, he began to organize the local Taliban groups. He has excellent communication skills; while Pashto is his native tongue, he is proficient in Arabic due to frequent socialization with Arabs in Afghanistan and also speaks broken Urdu (BBC, April 20).
There's a fair few Arabic speakers wandering around Afghanistan...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/articl e.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34024
The shortage has caused a backlog of untranslated Arabic materials collected from electronic surveillances of suspected Islamic terrorists conducted in the U.S., and from interrogations of suspected terrorists conducted abroad, mostly at prisoner camps in Afghanistan and Cuba. The backlog also includes reams of documents in Arabic and other tongues recovered in Afghanistan and other countries.
And it looks like they actually do need Arabic translators in Afghanistan...
Hey, whadya know? (Well actually I already did know, but that's because I actually have a vague clue.)
Taleban is an Arabic word, BTW. Did you ever stop to wonder why on earth a group of Afghans would use an Arabic word to describe themselves?
Hrrrm?..
C'mon, if your exalted one passed gas you'd smell lilacs and ask if that was Debussy..
... enter your head that you're being proved wrong because you're wrong?
Or is it all Obama's fault somehow someway?
enter your mind that you are an enabler? No way, right?
Can you link to anyone here ever claiming he is faultless? I doubt it. Sure he makes the occasional slip - what person campaigning every day for 15 months doesn't? Does it matter? Not one bit.
Ah, but you did not criticize Obama for not traveling to Europe enough. You criticized him for not holding NATO oversight hearings about Afghanistan, when in fact his subcommittee has no jurisdiction over Afghanistan and the full Foreign Relations Committee has been the one coordinating trans-continental efforts with NATO.
If you'd like to criticize Obama for not traveling to Europe enough, and instead spending his valuable time abroad in WORTHLESS places like Russia, the Middle East, and Africa... Let's go ahead and have that discussion.
I commented on the subject, as a possible tour guide for O in Erope..
Why I Should Be Obama's Tour Guide (not an official submission)
Dear Sen. Obama, Like you I am bi-racial, grew up on two languages, spent much of my childhood overseas and my parents practiced two different regligions. Also, like you, I have foreign policy experience. As a Little Leaguer, we played against the Japanese All Stars. And I've also served as an unofficial tour guide on the continent for friends and colleagues. (Since you've already been to Great Britain, we'll go there along with Scandinavia, the Baltic States, Germany and Eastern Europe the next time around.)
First stop, Amsterdam. Uh no,not for THAT or THAT, I was thinking the Rembrandt museum. Next stop, Brittany. It's charming, beautiful, the people are lovely and the food is superb. Note; Please don't refer to the English channel as the English channel. I think they call it Le Mer de la France or something like that. They had this war with England that was called the Hundred Years War and some of `em aren't over it. I understand completely. I feel the same way about the Anaheim Ducks who knocked the Red Wings out in the Stanley Cup playoffs last year. Also, skip Lucky Pierre jokes - trust me they don't fly. Also on our itinerary: Alsace-Lorraine, Lugano, Barcelona, Geneva, Vienna, Palermo and Genk, Belgium. Why Genk you ask? Great question. That way we can always say "We've been Genked!" And now that it's euros, you won't have to worry about that "pretty money" with pictures of broads and musicians on it. I was always suspicious of that kind of currency. You will hear jokes about Belgians, I found it best to simply pretend not to understand
. I will also share with you the European idea of Heaven and Hell. Heaven The Germans are the factory workers. The French are the cooks. The English are the police. The Swiss are the bankers. And the Italians are the lovers. Hell The French are the factory workers. The English are the cooks. The Italians are the bankers. The Germans are the police. And the Swiss are the lovers.. Respectfully, Taters
Taters is my handle at NQ. Actually I have always reckoned with the fact that it may be well be Sen. Obama. my decision to support Hillary came Dec. 27, 2007. I could never vote for McCain and O gets Iraq and Afghanistan. I would hope the B teamers such as McPeak, Zbig and the 2nd string Clintonistas would be tossed. And that Orszag and Sperling would help out too. Many of his supporters, I'm not so keen on. Nor am I nuts about every Hillary supporter. I see no difference with O's politics than any others.
