It's About Speaking Ababic, Stupid

Run up to Iraq war:

Over at Defense, competent intelligence professionals were purged in order to ease the way to war. Douglas Feith, brought in under Rumsfeld to serve as undersecretary of defense for policy, applied an ideological test to his staff: He didn’t want competence; he wanted fervor. Col. Pat Lang, a Middle East expert who served under five presidents, Republican and Democratic, in key posts in military intelligence, recalls being considered for a job at the Pentagon. During the job interview, Feith scanned Lang’s impressive resume. “I see you speak Arabic,” Feith said. When Lang nodded, Feith said, “Too bad,” and dismissed him.

Iraq Study Group report:

"All of our efforts in Iraq, military and civilian, are handicapped by Americans' lack of knowledge of language and cultural understanding," the bipartisan panel said in its report. "In a conflict that demands effective and efficient communication with Iraqis, we are often at a disadvantage."

These are the same geniuses that had the college Republicans running police and jails. These were the questions Iraqi reconstruction candidates were asked.

Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000?

Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror?

Your views on Roe V Wade?

The man in charge with the hiring was Jim O'Beirne. If his last name is familiar it's because he is married to conservative shrill Kate O'Beirne.

Also hired was the daughter of a neoconservative pundit and a 24 year-old man with no financial background to run the Iraq stock market. This was his first job. I'm willing to go out on a limb and say none of these people knew Arabic.