re: #4 Jay C

From last thread:
Thanks for the clarification. Though why the letter would be in Farsi is curious, as it is addressed to an Iraqi official: I would think it would be in whatever the standard official language is in Iraq - Arabic (??) .

Oh yeah, of course: it’s to the Iraqis.

re: #38 goddamnedfrank

Mind blowing. #Iraq PM on withdrawal letter: we received the letter thru official channels with an Arabic version different from English. When we enquired they resent correct Arabic version/ correct translation of English letter. They later said the letter was sent by mistake…

That’s great. Besides being vague enough to be that misinterpreted by one side or another, somebody must have gotten a version translated, then the original changed and nobody retranslated the document. And nobody caught it on the way out the door. This is nuts.

I’m guessing it’s not the career guys that made such a massive fuckup: there was probably senior political dicks rewriting it at random intervals and screwing up the process completely. If there’s one thing the military should be good at, it’s paperwork.