I agree

Submitted by Kepha Hor (United States), Nov 23, 2011 at 22:47

I could not agree with you more. I myself am rather proud of my proficiency in written and spoken North Chinese (a 2d language), but have little admiration for the Chinese Communist Government--after all, China was there long before 1949! By the way, the official transliteration of is now "Sun Zi".

Further, while knowledge of languages does not guarantee expertise or even loyalty, and may even mask what some in the foreign policy communities criticize as "clientitis", they are still important tools for government agencies to use in dealing with the rest of the world. While there may be secret admirers of Islam or whatever among Arabists in government employ or of Maoism among there Chinese-skilled counterparts, I don't see how the USA can avoid employing linguists if it plans to do business with the rest of the world.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".