What the f@#$ is going on?

It's really too bad that the on-line Wall Street Journal requires you to join (unless of course you take advantage of their introductory offer) as Tuesday's Journal had a fascinating article about David, an Army foreign-area officer.

David is a West Point graduate who has become an expert in the ways, customs and, most important, the language of Arabs. He spent two years in Yemen, where he was able to meet people who wouldn't step foot into the US Embassy and establish close relationships with these people.

In May 2004 he was transferred to Mosul to help build relationships with Iraqis who could be considered trustworthy. By all accounts he has performed superbly in a variety of tasks from reconaissance to nation-building. The chief of staff for the general in charge of the northern third of Iraq says of David and other foreign-area officers, "We ought to have one of these guys assigned to every commander in Iraq." Yet, David and his colleagues are being transferred out of Iraq. When David leaves Mosul, the Embassy there will have exactly zero people who speak Arabic or who can be considered a Middle East expert. Does that make any sense? Particularly when we have made so many mistakes in Iraq because we don't understand the culture or speak the language.