Most Countries Do Not Speak English

MONTEREY ADDRESS - Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, at podium, addresses joint service members assigned to the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language School and Presidio of Monterey, Calif., Aug. 23, 2011. DOD photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jacob N. Bailey

The Pentagon's Foreign-Language Frustrations -- Time

As Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told 2,500 troops Tuesday about the foreign-language skills he championed as a congressman, an active-duty Army officer was complaining about the paucity of military personnel who can speak anything other than English.

The current push to train soldiers to speak the local languages in Afghanistan and Iraq was "haphazardly thrown together," Morgan Smiley, an active-duty Army officer, posted on Small Wars Journal, an independent website, Tuesday morning. A recent government report makes clear that – a decade into the war in Afghanistan – the Pentagon continues to bumble teaching its troops the local languages, a skill that ground commanders say is as valuable as a soldier's skill with a rifle. Several hours later, defense chief Panetta praised the Pentagon's efforts to improve the language skills in its arsenal, but conceded "frankly, more needs to be done."

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My Comment: Understanding another country's culture and language has always been a problem with the U.S. .... not only for the soldiers in the field but also among the top staff and their political masters. Why this is the case bewilders me because I personally know that this can easily be overcome (Russian and Ukrainian are my 1rst and 2nd languages, and living in Quebec Canada has made English and French my 3rd/4th languages ).