Corruption in a client government!
Hubris in an imperial government!
Wikileaks of a bleak situation!
Reading "The limits of power" by Andrew J. Bacevich
History of the French Resistance
American colonial history
English only in the Lino Lakes government
Cutting foreign languages in schools
It all really ties together, sadly.
Let's start with American colonial history. The colonists did not like being occupied by a foreign army. They started fighting back. They didn't follow the rules of engagement and fought from concealment. George the Third had many derogatory things to say about those rebels. Many Afghanis (and Iraqis) don't like being occupied by a foreign army. They started fighting back. They don't follow the rules of engagement and fight from concealment. George the Bush had many derogatory things to say about those insurgents.
Many French did not like the German occupation. They fought back, often from concealment. Instead of roadside bombs, they threw train switches the wrong way. Some Germans took bribes to look the other way. Some Vichy police were very hard on the resistance. Other Vichy police called resistance leaders to warn them of a planned raid. See "Occupation déja vu". Oh, yes! The Germans in France had an advantage that the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan don't have; a large number of them spoke the local language.
We are running up huge deficits to fight these wars and don't have money for education in our own country. In fact, we are cutting back on the teaching of foreign languages. If our soldiers and diplomats are not linguistically proficient, can we expect them to communicate with people who speak other languages with little or no proficiency in English?
Many states and localities want to put into law English-only for government business, the latest being Lino Lakes, Minnesota (Star Tribune 2010-07-26). What if other countries did the same, including at immigration and customs control at the airport? If the U.S. is English only, shouldn't Japan be Japanese only? If so, they should remove the Romaji from all the train station signs and leave only the Kanji and Hiragana. Ah, so! You didn't get off at せんだい? So sorry, you missed Sendai.
Which gets us back to imperial hubris. If we think we know what's best for other countries, how can we even know what's best for them if we don't speak their language, much less understand many of their customs? Insurgency will surely follow. Knowing the culture, the language, and the landscape better than any foreigners, the insurgents have an immense tactical and strategic advantage.
When will they ever learn?
