Arabic Speakers

According to this article, the U.S. army has only 1300 active duty soldiers "who can speak or read some Arabic." That's rather amazing, considering how long this region has been considered an area of "strategic importance." I wonder, though if there's even more to the story than this: One person I know who could actually communicate well with native speakers and had spent a lot of time in Jordan and Yemen was called up into the army after September 11 and told me he spent all his time assigned to vehicle maintenance. I know a couple of other people who have joined the military in the past year, but my guess is they're still in training. Another aspect here is the vast gap between the "Modern Standard Arabic" most university students learn and the colloquial speech of any country, which is usually taught as a separate course, if at all. And I can pretty much guarantee the Iraqi dialect wasn't commonly taught until maybe very recently, just because it wasn't a place most students saw themselves going.

What's the solution? In the short term, I can't think of one. Part of this is a pipeline problem, as in order to get more Arabic speakers you first need qualified Arabic teachers. Relying on willing native speakers is probably the best option. As far as the future goes, however, I think this makes the case for why the U.S. has a national interest in generating knowledge throughout society of different languages and cultures throughout the world. In my undergraduate education courses, I learned the standard thinking among educators was that multicultural issues should ideally be introduced in middle school, though there are seldom the resources to do that. But imagine how much better off we might be if more soldiers had basic knowledge of Middle Eastern culture from their general education before they even thought of joining the military. And you never know where the next major crisis might arise...