WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — US military intervention in Libya to fight Daesh is likely to fail because of the ignorance of US intelligence, military and diplomatic officials, former CIA officer and Council for the National Interest Executive Director Philip Giraldi told Sputnik.
"We have forgotten the lessons that we learned at such cost in the Vietnam War," Geraldi stated. "When the United States enters such conflicts, we have almost no officials who know the local language, and our people do not have a clue regarding what the local people are doing or thinking."
US officials in combat zones around the world generally only serve short tours and their countdown to departure sometimes starts on the day they arrive, he explained.
"That is the reason why disasters like the killing of Ambassador [J. Christopher] Stevens in Benghazi and the murder of seven CIA officers at Khost [in Afghanistan in 2009] happen. And they will continue to happen," Geraldi warned.
Moreover, US policymakers have continued to invent specious excuses for their failure to commit personnel to countries and regions long enough to gain real understanding of them, Geraldi complained.
"For Americans, the constant rotation of officers was often explained by management not wanting its foot soldiers to ‘go native’," he added.
Geraldi acknowledged that there were administrative problems in having a sufficient number of highly qualified Arabic and Pashto speakers available to fill sensitive assignments for the US government.
"One would think that after 15 years of the global War on Terror someone might have figured out a solution. It takes two years to learn Arabic up to a functional level and no one in mid-career is willing to spend that time and effort, as language training is not particularly career enhancing," he observed.
Because of these shortcomings, US military officers, intelligence personnel, and even diplomats often tend to be the blind leading the blind when they arrive at an overseas post where the local language is challenging, Giraldi concluded.
