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RE: Resources
i think the population of people that
-can read arabic
-and translate it into english fluently
-_and_ that are willing to read through documents online and translate them
-_AND_ that are willing to either say nice things about the bushies or contradict the bad stuff (either directly, through accurate translation, or indirectly, through finding documents which contradict the damning documents)--
--is probably pretty small.
two broad generalizations:
1. as i understand it, the majority of arabic speakers in the world are muslim. the majority of muslims in the world are, at best, neutral, in terms of their actions, to the US's occupation in iraq... but not disinterested.
there's lots of muslim folks that don't care enough or aren't fanatic enough to go and blow up people because of it, but an infidel power (us) occupying a muslim land (iraq) is one of those things that the koran says you gotta pull the red alert lever over. (i posted on this a couple months ago, talking about the differences between defensive and offensive jihad. i could find more info on it if anyone's interested.)
2. there's also a very strong sense of common ethnicity in the arabic world, far more than there is in the west, particuarly america--a lot of arabs, particuarly in the middle east, feel like saddam, even if he was a dickhead, was an arab problem. sort of the creepy uncle that no one likes because he beats his wife, but who you'll always go bail out of jail...
and so... there's not much public outcry in the arabic speaking world about attacks on US troops, particuarly if you're talking about troops in iraq.
and so... i question the wisdom--in terms of gaming the outcome--that the administration has shown by putting all this stuff online. unless it IS all a plant.
out of forty-eight thousand documents, there's a pretty big pool to find something which sounds "damning." (think of what happens every time the media gets their hands on an FOUO doc saying that a shipment of armored humvee doors got delayed at some plant in michigan, or that there was a riot at a military prison and an MP punched an inmate in the eye.)
sure, there's also lots of documents that could work as a rebuttal--but if the administration had enough people kicking around to sort through it, they wouldn'be be putting this stuff online, would they? (unless, of course, the intent of this program is to play catchup all the time, which is insane.)
keep in mind, too, that from the viewpoint of a lot of arabs, everything the US puts out is crooked, anyway. in terms of arab political and religious leaders we don't like, this isn't pouring gasoline on the fire, but it's putting the can pretty close to the flames isn't it? for, say, muqtada al-sadr's newspaper, this is a win-win situation. if they find something that says we're bad, they can run it--if they find something which says we're not bad, they can say it's bullshit and pull up another three documents which say we're bad.
RE: Resources
Franklin learning Arabic? That's like Bortnyk learning how to Tank.
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RE: Resources
are there more:
1. people with an interest in supporting the bush administration
2. people with an interest in giving it a black eye
3. people out for the truth, and nothing more?
It really doesn't matter. If someone makes some kind of claim as to what something says, there are official intel translators, academics, etc. to confirm or deny. I guess if the documents are damning enough, how many people with what level of credibility are willing to put their reputation on the line swearing to something when anyone who reads Arabic can decifer the truth? Heck, you or I could find some books on Arabic, and though it would be pretty much impossible for us to learn Arabic ourselves, we could figure out a word or phrase here or there well enough to figure out if that person is full of crap or if the document generally says what they say if we wanted to badly enough.
Moreover, there may be Arabic speakers out there that hate Bush, but there are also a LOT out there, probably more, that hate Saddam Hussein.
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