[Bigg Red]

What are they trying to hide?

[white trash redneck]

Right after 9/11 I was all full of piss and vinegar and called the local armed forces recruiters. They laughed at me because of my age. So, my next thought was that there would be a real need for speakers of Arabic, Farsi, and Dari, and I checked the local universities' foreign language programs. Nothing.

I agree with the article that there is a real shortage of classes in Middle Eastern languages.

[RonF]

In reading the link, and then reading MESA's statement, they state that they fear that requiring students to accept a governmental service obligation in order to get the funding under this program will make it difficult to get the cooperation of Middle Eastern governments, schools, organizations, etc. to work with these students, and by extension their teachers. The fear would be that such groups would see these students as budding spies.

Now, if all the government is paying for is for undergrads, etc.., to learn Arabic, that's one thing. But if we are talking about graduate and post-graduate study, where doing significant work in such areas often means that you are generally directly involved with such entities, I can see where requiring people accepting such funding to then sign up for a term with the military or intelligence agencies would have a chilling effect on the whole object of the program, which is to learn more about the Middle East. At this level, you don't just work out of books. You become one of the people who is going to write such a book, and you can't do it by watching Al-Jezeera (sp?). You've got to go on site, or work with people who are on site, and that's where the sticking point is.

Now, I haven't read all the papers, etc., that are linked. But such an argument has some validity on the face of it, anyway. If someone wants to read deeper, fine.

[Tacis]

This is strange! We are at a point in the US where the Arabs/Muslims who are here must make a choice, they are either with us or against us. Those with us should have no problem enhancing our military/intelligence capabilities. Those against us should have their visa status checked and their 'phones tapped.

Unless, this is anther one of those educational union things. The guys who make big bucks today for translations and such don't want a lot of of new, patriotic competitors, so they protest.

[swarthyguy]

Traitors. It's none of their business what the students do with their skills.

[texasbluebell]

Add to Academia list please

[XBob]

As they appear to be against defending the US, let's boycott MESA and send them all back to the mid-east.

[eclectic]

Sleepers are everywhere!