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Reuters article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...100601372.html
"America's long-standing disinterest in foreign languages and cultures is restraining the ability of the CIA to find recruits with language skills needed to prosecute the war on terrorism, CIA Director Porter Goss said on Thursday."
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Same problem for the military services...
A Call to Action for National Foreign Language Capabilities
The problem is recognized. The issue is implementation.
Quote:
History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The United States Congress immediately passed the National Defense Education Act to respond to the threat of Soviet technological superiority. The generation of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, linguists, and area specialists created by this Act put a man on the moon, helped win the Cold War, and today has a spacecraft 746 million miles from Earth soaring amidst the rings of Saturn.
The terrorist attacks of September 11th, the Global War on Terrorism, and the continued threat to our Homeland have defined the critical need to take action to improve the foreign language and cultural capabilities of the Nation. We must act now to improve the gathering and analysis of information, advance international diplomacy, and support military operations. We must act to retain our global market leadership and succeed against increasingly sophisticated competitors whose workforces possess potent combinations of professional skills, knowledge of other cultures, and multiple language proficiencies. Our domestic well-being demands action to provide opportunities for all students to learn foreign languages important for the Nation, develop the capabilities of our heritage communities, and ensure services that are core to our quality of life.