Political hacks as U.S. ambassadors

Re “Why we’re clueless,” Current, Feb. 18

Michael May almost hit the nail on the head. He said: “Someone in intelligence has to put himself in the enemy’s shoes.” We need people in our foreign embassies who at least speak the language. The Senate should not approve any person for ambassador unless the person speaks the language and traces his or her ancestry to that nation. There are people in the U.S. who came from every nation on Earth. Yet we send political hacks who were in the campaign of the newly elected president to fill a slot as ambassador. A briefing in English is not good enough when the cultural divide with an Arab nation is so important.

Only with the right people in the embassy can we collect the clues to intelligently understand how to deal with that nation. Unless the Senate takes its duty seriously, America will remain clueless.

BERNARD BREGMAN

Northridge

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I was struck by the convergence of “Why we’re clueless” in Current and the cover story “A wasted Afghan winter?” in the same Feb. 18 edition. Kicking down doors, indeed; that seems to be the metaphor for our government’s foreign policy. It’s a lot easier to kick doors down (and people around) than deal with them in a civilized manner.

And the irony is that it just doesn’t work; we create more problems than we hope to solve. We only end up engendering more hate for and disgust with America; or maybe I should say our current leadership. Didn’t these guys learn anything in kindergarten?

JOHN HOLLAND

Anaheim