Quote Originally Posted by Dakota View Post
I fear this kind of thing is far more common than people realize.

It is extremely shortsighted and incredibly discouraging but not surprising.

I'm a Soldier and my wife is a western educated Iraqi, fluent in Arabic, Farsi and Kurdish (as well as English) and is more "pro-American" than most US Citizens I run into.

For over a year she's repeatedly offered to come into local Reserve units to give presentations, provide cultural training or language training or just participate in a general Q and A session either for NCODP or ODP... basically whatever the commanders want... for free, on her own time and her own dime.

She's even offered to travel to other units to do this. Just so she can make a contribution back to the military and the Nation who helped free her people.

Never a nibble... nada, zip.

If we lose the wars we are in right now it will be because of short-sighted, desk-bound bureaucratic bean-counters and folks in command (like the RRC's) who are more concerned with making their spreadsheets look good than with actually getting soldiers quality training in sufficient quantities.


I can not begin to tell you how frustrated I am with the willful negligence and ignorance I've experienced and witnessed.
Dakota,
PM me some contact information. I may be able to swing you and your wife a free trip to Washington State to help a unit preparing for deployment. Let me know if you're interested.
RTK