One of the more startling revelations of the Iraq Study Group appears to put the lie to Vice President Chaney's proclamation the "we would be greeted as liberators".
It seems one fundamental piece of that picture was missing then and continues to be missing now.
The ISG found that of 1,000 people assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, only 6 spoke the local language. That's right, 6.
Joseph Heller of Catch-22 fame couldn't have dreamed that up.
How would our soldiers know what was being chanted at them as they drove into the place on that first day? For all we know they could have been smiling and wishing us dead.
How do you explain democracy to someone if the interpreter calls in sick or takes a long lunch break? How seriously are you taken by those who you want to stand up so you can stand down, when you can even ask them what their name is?
No wonder the middle and upper middle classes are fleeing to Jordan and Kuwait. The doctors, teachers and other professionals aren't going to stay any longer - they've waited 3 years thinking Bush's supposed policy was going to work and it was working - inside the green zone. Now that area is seeing increases in violence and the taking of more American and Iraqi lives.
So is it any wonder that we had to learn about the tribal nature of the people there as a result of violence, rather than through discussions.
How do you build a nation, if you can't even talk?
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