Back on Wednesday November 19, 2003, the Guardian amongst others printed DARLENE SUPERVILLE's report Lack of Arabic Translators Hurting U.S., but it's now only available in Google's cache. Anyway, the key quote:

"It's easier to train someone to fly an F-14 than it is to speak Arabic," said Kevin Hendzel, a spokesman for the American Translators Association.

So what is speaking Chinese harder than? Flying an EP-3 or an F-8 jet?