Given that, why’s the US Army so hot to fire Arabic language specialists, which both the military and intelligence are chronically short of, just because they’re gay?
I mean, what’s the real priority here, folks?
(via InstaPundit and Shark)
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Sounds like par for the course, lately. Let’s cut veteran’s benefits, and fire ’em.
Gotta keep Falwell and his sort happy, that’s job one for this administration.
Randy, I hardly think that the military cares what Falwell thinks — and the anti-gay stance predates the administration by some… by as long as there have been gay people. One of the few things I approve of was Clinton’s attempt to end this nonsense about gays the military has; unfortunately he went about it in such a ham-handed fashion that no politician that wants to get anything else done is going to touch the issue with a twenty-foot pole. In any case, Bush is hardly anti-gay. Isn’t he the one who has a gay person serving in some official position (I forget which one) in his administration?
That being said, the military should be roundly criticized for tossing out someone who speaks Arabic at just the time we need Arabic speakers, just because of which sex he likes to sleep with. Priorities, people.
She. Who she likes to sleep with….
A classic military case of cutting off the nose to spite the face.
Bah. I have no patience…
Attendess at the Presidio of Montery are there to learn a language. It does not mean that they are proficient, yet, in whatever language they are assigned to learn. While I was there (late 1989 into late 1990) my class had a 91 percent wash rate. After DLI, you then have to go to another course at Goodfellow, AFB in San Angelo, Texas. VERY few people make it through both the DLI and the dialect course at Goodfellow.
So folks who were at a minimum (since, based on the story, they might well be instructors) were on the training track for Arabic language skills are being fired. That still doesn’t make any sense, unless there’s a huge number of others on that track.
Because the language school is strictly unclassified, the majority of language instructors in Monterey are civilians (usually native speakers). There are military STA’s (student training advisors) who’s primary job is to remind you that you’re still in the military, but they normally don’t get involved in your language training. The “interesting” language stuff usually starts at Goodfellow.
Government language staffing is usually reactionary. In other words, the manning folks usually enroll a minimum number of people for languages that are not in demand. If something happens, classes are usually REALLY over enrolled. The expectation is that the majority of the class will wash out.
Hmm. Interesting. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any more detail on this particular incident.
Although it doesn’t address this particular incident, if you’re interested, here is a link to the DLI site. It lists out requirements, length of schooling, etc.
http://dli-www.army.mil/atfl/daa/default.htm