SAN DIEGO, 29 December 2004 — It shouldn’t take a genius to realize that US troops being deployed to Iraq needed to be armed with a basic and critical skill — Arabic. Few, if any received language training when first deployed, which resulted in many unfortunate misunderstandings, and even deaths, stemming from an inability to communicate.

Marines returning from duty in Iraq spoke of the difficulties they faced because they were unable to communicate the simplest commands, such as: “Come back tomorrow.” Or, “Have you seen any weapons or anything suspicious?”

As a result, many Marines now being redeployed to Iraq are requesting Arabic language classes.

Commanders have also realized the lack of Arabic language was hurting their Marine’s mission and endangering their men on the ground. Their Marines were being sent to Iraq with a difficult order: To win the war, but also to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi civilians — a difficult task without the ability to speak Arabic.

At Camp LeJeune, the largest Marine base on the East Coast, Maj. Gen. Stephen Johnson, commander of II MEF (Marine Expeditionary Forces) Forward has ordered each infantry squadron to have at least one Marine who speaks rudimentary Arabic before their massive redeployment scheduled in early 2005.

As a result, over 260 Marines are taking Arabic language courses at the nearby Coastal Carolina Community College. The Marines don’t have enough time to become fluent in Arabic, but the aim is that by the time they return to Iraq they will know enough basic grammar, military vocabulary and conversational Arabic so that they will not have to constantly rely on an interpreter.

These skills are also expected to help Marines at checkpoints and during house searches.

Demand for the program has been so high that the college brought in another Arabic linguist. The Arabic classes are 160 hours over 20 working days. The military students also receive 26 CDs in Arabic to continue their learning once they graduate from the classroom.

One Marine corporal told a local journalist that after these classes, he hopes to be able to identify words in sentences, such as “bomb” and/or “insurgent” even if he doesn’t understand the entire sentence being said to him. His aim is to be able to perceive a potentially hostile situation before it happens.

The professors say even if Iraqis have to speak slowly when they communicate with the Marines, he is sure that most Iraqis will appreciate the effort these young Marines have made to learn their language and culture.

Many of the Marines taking Arabic classes are preparing for their second, or even third deployment in Iraq, so they already know the importance of ‘arming themselves with Arabic.”