<p>First ban the Chineese toys then send the interpreters and agri experts to Afghanistan from Iraq</p>
<p>ABC News’ David Wright and Sunlen Miller Report: Sporting a shiny new American flag pin at an appearance in Rush Limbaugh’s hometown, Sen. Barack Obama came up with some novel reasons why the U.S. may be struggling in the war in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Obama posited – incorrectly – that Arabic translators deployed in Iraq are needed in Afghanistan – forgetting, momentarily, that Afghans don’t speak Arabic.</p>
<p>“We only have a certain number of them and if they are all in Iraq, then its harder for us to use them in Afghanistan,” Obama said.</p>
<p>“We need agricultural specialists in Afghanistan, people who can help them develop other crops than heroin poppies, because the drug trade in Afghanistan is what is driving and financing these terrorist networks. So we need agricultural specialists,” he said.</p>
<p>“But if we are sending them to Baghdad, they’re not in Afghanistan,” Obama said.</p>
<p>Iraq has many problems, but encouraging farmers to grow food instead of opium poppies isn’t one of them. In Iraq, oil fields not poppy fields are a major source of U.S. technical assistance.</p>
<p>Ah, give the man a break. He is exhausted, having traveled to “all 57 states” in the past few months. Maybe he, what did Hillary call it–oh yeah, maybe he “misspoke”. Misspoked? Misspeaked? Whatever…</p>
<p>“Obama posited – incorrectly – that Arabic translators deployed in Iraq are needed in Afghanistan – forgetting, momentarily, that Afghans don’t speak Arabic.”</p>
<p>Osama bin Laden and all of his highest supporters speak Arabic; almost none speak Dari or Poshtu.</p>
<p>^^ But Osama isn’t an Afghani and no one can find him anyway. I’d expect they need translators to speak with the local population - not the Arab terrorists in the country who likely wouldn’t talk to them any way (if they could find them). I think Obama mis-speakeded on this one. Oh well, if he wins maybe Letterman will still be able to do his great Presidential speeches routine.</p>
<p>They need BOTH Arabic and Dari/Poshtu translators. If they want to interrogate Al-Qaeda members, they will definitely need Arabic. They can’t get any Dari/Poshtu translators from Iraq, as neither of those languages are spoken there. But they can indeed get Arabic translators.</p>
<p>In addition to translators, we need more videographers in the area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Osama bin Laden speaks only on camera these days, in Arabic. Subtitles could be in Dari/Poshtu for local distribution, I guess.</p>