Once Again, Hussein’s An Idiot On The War
ABC News’ David Wright and Sunlen Miller Report: Sporting a shiny new American flag pin at an appearance in Rush Limbaugh’s hometown, Sen. Barack Obama came up with some novel reasons why the U.S. may be struggling in the war in Afghanistan.
“We don’t have enough capacity right now to deal with it — and it’s not just the troops,” Obama, D-Ill., told a crowd in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
Obama posited — incorrectly — that Arabic translators deployed in Iraq are needed in Afghanistan — forgetting, momentarily, that Afghans don’t speak Arabic.
“We only have a certain number of them and if they are all in Iraq, then its harder for us to use them in Afghanistan,” Obama said.
The vast majority of military translators in both war zones are drawn from the local population.
Naturally they speak the local language. In Iraq, that’s Arabic or Kurdish. In Afghanistan, it’s any of a half dozen other languages — including Pashtu, Dari, and Farsi.
No sooner did Obama realize his mistake — and correct himself — but he immediately made another.
“We need agricultural specialists in Afghanistan, people who can help them develop other crops than heroin poppies, because the drug trade in Afghanistan is what is driving and financing these terrorist networks. So we need agricultural specialists,” he said.
So far, so good.
“But if we are sending them to Baghdad, they’re not in Afghanistan,” Obama said.
Iraq has many problems, but encouraging farmers to grow food instead of opium poppies isn’t one of them. In Iraq, oil fields not poppy fields, are a major source of U.S. technical assistance.
There are other infrastructure problems both countries share that U.S. advisors have struggled to address — a lack of safe roads, schools, adequate electricity, etc. — but Obama did not mention these.
Obama’s overall point may well be true: that U.S. efforts in Iraq have come at the expense of the battle against al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Still it’s not asking too much to expect the man many say will soon be the Democratic nominee to cite the right facts to back up his thesis.
UPDATE: Bill Burton, Obama campaign spokesperson, disputes this report, writing in to say, “This poorly researched and written piece is inaccurate in that it just completely ignores the need for Arabic translators in Afghanistan, and the need for agricultural specialists in Iraq. It is irresponsible to report such issues so matter-of-factly without checking out the actual facts. Please reference these very simple and easy to find websites to learn more about these issues: on the need for agricultural specialists in Iraq; and on the foreign fighters in Afghanistan.
To which, ABC News’ David Wright responds:
Interesting pushback from the Obama campaign on this story. It begs a response.
They point out that the U.S. has indeed deployed agricultural experts to Iraq, in an effort to work with aid organizations to rebuild Iraq’s food infrastructure. Other technical experts were deployed early on to southern Iraq to help rebuild the ravaged ecosystem of the Marsh Arabs, whom Saddam Hussein sought to exterminate. The U.S. and its allies sent much and varied assistance to the Iraqi people, including agricultural aid. My bad.
However, Obama’s point seemed to be that the Iraq effort constituted a brain drain in the Afghanistan agricultural problems, that the experts deployed to Iraq would otherwise have gone to Afghanistan to encourage Afghan farmers to grow food not poppies. That strikes me –- as someone who has covered the conflicts in both countries extensively — as doubtful.
The main problem now in both Iraq and Afghanistan is the lack of security, which makes it too dangerous for the experts to do their work.
As far as that goes, Obama’s overall point –- as noted in the original piece –- is probably valid. The vast numbers of troops needed to secure Iraq (unsuccessfully) have had an impact on the troop available for Afghanistan. Neither country is particularly safe right now. (Then again, Obama wants to start withdrawing the troops from Iraq. Would that make it any safer for agricultural experts and aid organizations to lend whatever hand is needed there?)
As for the point about Arabic translators needed for Afghanistan, the Obama campaign points to the well-documented presence of foreign fighters there, many of whom do speak Arabic. However, these folks are mostly shooting at NATO troops, not talking to them.
No doubt there are a handful of Arabic speakers employed at Bagram and Kandahar and other detention centers to interrogate foreign fighters captured on the battlefield. But I have not seen any reports that there is a shortage of such personnel, or that the need for such translators in Iraq has hamstrung the interrogators in Afghanistan.
Foreign fighters captured in BOTH Iraq and Afghanistan have also been sent to detention centers such as the one in Guantanamo. Is there a shortage of Arabic translators there or at other U.S. detention facilities overseas? That would be an interesting news story. Again, I haven’t seen any proof of it.
To reiterate: Obama’s main point may well be fair: that Iraq has made Afghanistan tougher to win by stretching our resources too thin. But are these really the best examples for him to cite of why this may be the case?
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See not voting for Obama does not mean you’re racist. it means you dont want a dumbass running your country.
Arabic translators for Afghanistan, and trying to get farmers away from growing poppies in Iraq. wow what a mistake there.
Oh and i especially liked the part about needing Arabic translators in Afghanistan mostly to speak to the foreign fighters. haha
man, we are in deep shit if this guy becomes president
May 14th, 2008 at 11:15 amThis fucking moron hasn’t been right yet!
May 14th, 2008 at 11:15 amHe’s dumber than a sack of hammers………!
Weak spin by the obama camp. The number of arabic speakers captured in Afghanistan who cant speak a local language must be tiny. I bet the number of Americans who have learned arabic in iraq and are now in afghanistan is a net positive in this equation.
FUCK OBAMA.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:42 amhis head is so far up his fuckin’ ass that the lump in his throat in his own nose…
and to think he allegedly has an ivy league education..minor league intellect…
May 14th, 2008 at 12:01 pmShowing all he’s learned as an absentee Senator of 41 months!!
Out of 126 items to vote on in the Illinois Senate he missed 66 votes! He missed 52% of the votes!! He only made 48% ! ! Unbelievable!!
May 14th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
God how the hell did the Dems find this guy? Hell Sharpton is more qualified, and probably alot smarter. And this guy’s followers criticize McCain for getttin Sunnis and Shi’its mixed up in one speech, which is completely understandable considering most non-muslims have no fucking idea of the difference.But saying we need Arabic translators in Afghanistan, and that we need to move the people helping the Iraqis not to grow poppy crops in order to have them teach the Afghanis not to plant poppy crops, what’s next? Arabic translators in Afghanistan? why not use Chinese translators, it wouldn’t make a difference anyways. 
And people say I won’t vote Obama because I’m racist. 
May 14th, 2008 at 12:24 pmAm starting to believe there is a very big “3rd world enclave” alive and well in this country.
This obama thing, the tribal leader of the clan, the drones, the gangs, the professional victims, the life blood suckers of this country, the angry, the democrats.
Ultimately, there is but one answer, it won’t be nice.
May 14th, 2008 at 1:14 pmHell, I’m a translator that speaks english! Translate this hussein—-go to fucken hell and take hellery with you! dumb ass dems
May 14th, 2008 at 1:25 pmfuck off obama
May 14th, 2008 at 2:46 pm^^^ HE might need an arabic translator to understand that. Afterall we all speak arabic
May 14th, 2008 at 3:40 pmOK… does this guy get more completely retarded as the campaign goes on, or is it just that we are finally hearing him?
And people that actually vote for this twat? They should have their voting privileges revoked.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:33 pm@83delta…..I’m with ya Brother. There are more of us out here with that same thought than people think.
What’s the difference between Hussein and a bag of shit?
…The bag.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:04 pmAnyone remember the “Peace Dividend”?
May 14th, 2008 at 5:57 pmDo u want to speak Arabic?
May 20th, 2008 at 3:35 am