When George W Bush mocked the Portuguese Language (calling a program to encourage its study "wasteful" and "pork"), was he just showing his ignorance of its strategic significance?
Portuguese is the dominant language of the fifth-largest nation in the world: Brazil. It is the largest and most powerful democracy in South America, and a leader in energy independence.
Bush's wars in the Middle East have suffered because of America's ignorance on Arabic and other languages, e.g. Parsee. Is he really too stupid to see that, in the 21st century, America needs to study the languages of ALL major countries?
LINKS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y-hkmfSkew
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/11/20071113-7.html
