Part of the problem, at a lower level, is our security clearance process, which makes it hard to get Americans w/ lots of family/visits abroad into government service. Thoroughness is always nice, but we’ve got a huge backlog and we’re not getting the people we need into government, so maybe it’s time for a re-balancing of priorities.

Here is some hard data:
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/5220

Some of the diplomatic people may have studied Arabic for a year or two, but unfortunately because it is a difficult language, couldn’t really carry on a conversation yet. Not for lack of effort. Great people in general, but just couldn’t speak the language.

This is in stark contrast to a couple of the navy guys I met in Bahrain. They had great language skills, which they needed for their particular job. Great guys as well.

Also, I said he was notable in that he spoke arabic AND had a lot of experience in the region (in contrast to van Walsum).

Furthermore, language skills are often indicative of not just linguistic proficiency, but also a level of cultural understanding. That will be useful for him if he is going to act as an envoy/mediator.

That doens’t seem particularly notable amongst the US diplomatic corps in the middle-east. It obviously buys him a lot of brownie points with you, though, so what the hell… go, Ross!