I agree that the war in Iraq is not being lost because of lack of Arabic speakers.

However, with that said, I think if there were more people in the DoD who understood that at its roots, Iraq as a country is an artificial construct, we might be somewhere. Our American idea of nationalism, democracy, and one person, one vote, does not translate to a primarily tribal society based on family clans. Iraqis, generally, respect clan or tribe alliance (for lack of better words) as far more important than the country (which was artificially created by the British) or the individual.

These are extremely difficult concepts for westerners to bend their minds around. Bringing democracy to a society that doesn't value it is bound to fail.

Arabic training in general wouldn't go amiss though. I remember a radio report early in the war of several (young, very uneducated) U.S. soldiers manning some kind of a checkpoint on a road. Imagine the scene--traffic backed up for miles, the soldiers carrying out their orders (checking for bombs or guns or whatnot), the Iraqis strung out in long lines waiting, everyone with frayed tempers, and the soldiers asking questions in a language that the locals don't speak.

"Do you have any weapons?"

"What?" (in Arabic)

"I said, DO YOU HAVE ANY WEAPONS?"

"What?" (in Arabic)

Now try to imagine that it's your neighborhood, and some foreign power has sent its non-English speaking troops to set up a blockade for no reason you can discern... I'd be getting a bit hot under the collar too. Add in a few bombs, a few dead family members... one can see how a young Iraqi might join "the insurgency" just to get these yahoos out.

I would hope that the few, the culturally aware, the language corps, could add a bit of imagination to this situation, a bit of empathy, so we could begin to see ourselves through someone else's eyes.

Since I can't shell out several thousand to replace all the light fixtures in my house.... I have five or six that are designed for fancy-shaped clear incandescent bulbs, and they're either covered by glass or open to the air. We didn't pick these, they came with the house.

I don't mind fluorescents, if they're shielded by frosted glass or lampshades. But in an unconcealed state, they ARE beyond ugly. In the fixtures that take the little faux candle-flame shapes, and the row of exposed bulbs over the bathroom mirror, I'm afraid that fluorescents would make it look like I live in a garage. I don't think they even make candle flame fluorescents.

Until I'm ready to replace whole fixtures, I'm afraid the incandescents are here to stay, in a few places at least.

I don't agree with the idea that all sex ed topics should be taught at home (and not at school). I remember some of the misinformation that traveled my own middle school hallways... girls who thought they could take their friend's pill for a day and be safe, someone telling stories about using a sandwich baggie as a condom, and no reliable information about STDs. If only kids with parents willing to teach them have information, there will be a LOT of misinformation travelling around.

Girls and boys need to understand how to protect themselves, how to make responsible decisions, so that when the time comes, the big head can think more rationally than the little head.

I have enough memories of my own adolescence to know that I WILL NOT BE THERE when my children will need this kind of information. I don't want to raise them to live in a box. I can't monitor each and every conversation, interaction, kiss, and who knows what else, and I don't want to. I'd like to raise my kids to think for themselves.

I see good sex education for the masses as being akin to vaccination. The real protection comes not from individual people being vaccinated, but from the "herd immunity" effect, where the disease ceases to travel because so few people have it. In the case of sex education, the more kids who have reliable, accurate, up to date information, the smaller the chance someone will try to use a sandwich baggie and end up pregnant or with AIDS.

Put on the market before Christmas for what it might have sold for at the top of the "boom." Guess what... didn't sell. The neighbors who moved away (he was downsized out of a middle management banking job) don't own it any more, it's owned by the relocation company that his new job contracted with.

It sat and sat on the market, two price reductions, still sitting. Now it's off the market, the outside has been painted, inside is being painted, carpet replaced, and a decorator hired to "stage" it with phony furniture.

Someone somewhere is taking a bath on this house. This is in a suburb with an exceptionally good elementary school. Trouble is, the initial price was greedy, and the house has never recovered from that initial marketing gaffe. Wonder how many others out there are like that.