Sunday, September 02, 2007

Some Foreign Idiocy

From the US "Armed Forces Journal":
They are deeply concerned that, despite the generals' protestations to the contrary, a rushed expansion of Army special operations forces will result in an SF contingent that, while bigger on paper, will contain half-filled units manned by troops who are less mature, less experienced and less skilled in languages and foreign cultures than SF soldiers traditionally have been.

We're not talking about the same people, are we? Okay, compared to British soldiers, US ones are far more likely to speak Spanish as well as Merkan but "skilled in languages and foreign cultures"? Nope. As they show, repeatedly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And, yes, I mean their Special Forces. Most of their regular and National Guard grunts have problems believing that there is more than one State in the Union, never mind that not everybody thinks that Starbucks is the pinnacle of civilised society (a rare, and extremely minimal, partial agreement with Neil Clark).

Update: This is not a comment on the fighting power (or ability) of USSOCOM, just on their cultural sensitivity and linguistic prowess.

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