From the ISG report:
By on Dec 7th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
From the ISG report:
“We were told that there are fewer than 10 analysts on the job at the Defense Intelligence Agency who have more than two years’ experience in analyzing the insurgency.” The report also notes “that only six people in the 1,000-person embassy in Baghdad can speak Arabic fluently.”
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LOL nobody that Bush puts into positions is competent, so nobody in our embassy staff in Baghdad knows squat about anything!
December 7th, 2006 at 12:31 pmJay you put it well. The loyalty above all else approach has been backfiring, and Bushy won’t get it.
December 7th, 2006 at 12:33 pmNow we know where Brownie was reassigned to.
I could see the Bush admin thinking that his Arabian (horse) experience would make him qualified…
December 7th, 2006 at 12:35 pmNot enough Republican relatives of congressmen available. And the position is dangerous…
December 7th, 2006 at 12:41 pmBush can’t even speak English fluently.
December 7th, 2006 at 12:41 pmBut, but, but, they’ve got pedigrees. Most of them were good college republicans and were groomed by the Federalist Society. They just can’t be incompetent!
December 7th, 2006 at 12:42 pmWTF does an embassy need 1,000 people for? The company I work for has 93 office world wide and is one of the largest networking manufacturers in the world and we only have 3,200 employees. Talk about big fu*king government and bloat. Jesus Christ!
December 7th, 2006 at 12:44 pm#7 The greater share of embassy’s personnel is security and people “just in case”. Just in case you need to take away some local leader with too much influence.
December 7th, 2006 at 12:51 pmWTF does an embassy need 1,000 people for?
Comment by SpudgeBoy
You have to calculate one helicopter pilot and co-pilot for every 10 people in order for them to be prepared to lift these people off the rooftops ….just in case.
December 7th, 2006 at 1:02 pmYa see, learnin’ the enemy’s language is givin’ in to the enemy. That’s what they want us to do. We’re not gonna do it. That’s how we show them our superororiety. By not speakin’ their language.
December 7th, 2006 at 1:15 pmNo wonder this thing is a massive clusterf*ck.
December 7th, 2006 at 1:34 pmEvery fact uncovered or leaked or otherwise made known give further proof of the complete and absolute failure of the Bush presidency.
December 7th, 2006 at 1:44 pmI think Poppy Bush was really crying about George the other day and not Jeb – it just bubbled over in him at that occasion.
I am no fan of any Bush, but the old man has got to be in internal turmoil, not to mention humiliation and embarrassment, at the stupidity and arrogance of his first born.
“WTF does an embassy need 1,000 people for?”
We could have so much fun with this one… let’s see.. . for starters… To launder money? To put up all the “Mission Accomplished” banners? To put out mortar fires? One for each oil well we’re gonna steal? so sweep up all te flowers petals from when they greeted us in the street as liberators?
Reall,y I bet most of them are just private security details.
December 7th, 2006 at 2:15 pmQ: Why are there only six people in the 1,000-person embassy in Baghdad that can speak Arabic fluently?
A: Because all the rest who could understand Arabic got the hell out of Dodge after overhearing a lot of nasty stuff.
So the question is not: why aren’t there more Arabic speakers in the Embassy?
Te real question is: why are there still so many?
December 7th, 2006 at 2:45 pm#
Every fact uncovered or leaked or otherwise made known give further proof of the complete and absolute failure of the Bush presidency.
I think Poppy Bush was really crying about George the other day and not Jeb – it just bubbled over in him at that occasion.
I am no fan of any Bush, but the old man has got to be in internal turmoil, not to mention humiliation and embarrassment, at the stupidity and arrogance of his first born.
Comment by Marie — December 7, 2006 @ 1:44 pm
December 7th, 2006 at 2:45 pmMarie, I had exactly the same reaction to his display. In addition, GW has no doubt spoiled any ambitions for this family to put ANOTHER son (Jeb) into the Presidency. It’s past time for this family to get out of “public life.”
Incompetence breeds incompetence. This is hardly surprising.
December 7th, 2006 at 3:31 pmMaybe the embassy should employ all of those fluent-in-the-extremely-important-language-of-Arabic-but-can’t-work-for-the-military gays.
December 7th, 2006 at 3:50 pmNot to toot my own horn, but I’ve pointed out the lack of Arabic speakers in the military, intelligence agencies, etc. several times on previous threads; I remember trolls like Tracy even questioning why I was “harping on the issue so much.†This Iraq War has now gone on longer than World War II, yet the Bush administration still hasn’t gotten around to training intelligence agents, military personnel, etc. to be competent in Arabic and the languages spoken in Afghanistan. By contrast, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Franklin Roosevelt administration, acutely aware of the need for linguists, set up intensive training, mostly on military bases, in Japanese–a language, which, like Arabic, is difficult and uses a different script. Nevertheless, some of the young men picked to be linguists learned Japanese well enough not only to translate normal communications but also to break military codes.
December 8th, 2006 at 1:24 amThis is just one of the several aspects in which the Bush administration’s “planning” has been inexcusably shoddy.
Turns out Saddam was only on the phone with Niger to order some of their famous yellow cake, the dessert, not the enriched uranium. Slight error in translation.
December 8th, 2006 at 6:14 amWhy would any of them need to understand the local language? They aren’t there to listen, and if the little brown ones can’t understand what you are telling them all you have to do is repeat it several times,but louder.
December 8th, 2006 at 11:26 am[...] 6 of the 1,000 employees at the embassy speak Arabic. 2:47 pm | [...]
March 2nd, 2007 at 2:47 pmEagleburger the “wise owl” has SUNK HIS TALONS into CHIMPya’s ASS and given Bush a SERIOUS BRAIN INJURY! Knowing CHIMPya as we do, though, all Eagleburger got were some SHIT-SMEARED TALONS, and CHIMPya went on his merry way, OBLIVIOUS TO EVERYONE and EVERYTHING, WHISTLING A HAPPY TUNE!!!!!
March 2nd, 2007 at 4:17 pm