Interesting article. Wilson certainly did not speak Arabic fluently. He may have learned some phrases while studying Arabic for an hour a day or less at the Embassy language program. Officers learning arabic spend six to nine months at NFATC (four to six hours a day) and then a year at FSI Tunis to learn arabic beyond the 3/3 level. Wilson's bio indicates clearly that he did not receive that training and Baghdad was his first and only assigment to the Middle East. He was not an arabist.
Interesting. It certainly takes more than a "Teach Yourself Arabic" crash course to qualify as an authentic Arabist, and Wilson mentions on p. 76 of
Politics of Truth that he had "no experience" in the Middle East when he went to Baghdad, in contrast to Glaspie whom he describes in these terms: "by contrast, she was one of our most experienced and knowledgeable Arabists. She had served in most of the Arab capitals and in key jobs at the State Department. Widely acclaimed as one of the best of her generation, April Glaspie understood all the issues and knew all the players very, very well." Hmmm--perhaps if Wilson was the translator and he didn't speak Arabic that would explain why Glaspie and Saddam's communications broke down, LOL. In that case I wonder what led Sa'adoon Al-Zubaydi to praise Wilson's Arabic? Another thing I notice is that according to Al-Zubaydi's account Glaspie didn't know enough not to expose the soles of her feet to someone in an Arab country. I'm not an Arabist and even I know that's considered rude. Either Glaspie wasn't such a great Arabist after all, or Al-Zubaydi is trying to make her look bad for some reason--but curiously, in the same breath he speaks well of Wilson.
On a related note, in Wilson's book and lectures (e.g. Politics of Truth, 100), when speaking on the subject of Glaspie he also often describes a conversation he allegedly had with Tariq Aziz's former assistant Nizar Hamdun (now deceased) wherein Hamdun reportedly exonerated Glaspie's performance during the Gulf Crisis. It seems like several former members of Saddam's regime had opinions to venture on the subject of Glaspie and Wilson.