Who Needs It? Only Tiny Percentage of Baghdad Embassy Employees Speak Arabic

| Thu Jun. 21, 2007 8:59 AM PDT

We blogged a while back about how the U.S. ambassador to Iraq was complaining to Condi Rice about the quality of his people in the Baghdad embassy. Too young, he said. Or too inexperienced. Or couldn't find work elsewhere.

Maybe the fact that only 10 of his foreign service folks speak Arabic fluently has something to do with his griping.

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