From US Spies in Afghanistan to Reporters in Israel

This:

Mr. Laux said he was struck by how little the military seemed to know about Afghanistan after so many years in the country, and that many C.I.A. officers had developed little more insight. Soldiers and spies served short tours of duty — with much of that time spent just becoming familiar with their surroundings — and then turned their jobs over to new arrivals forced to make the same mistakes as their predecessors.By 2011, Mr. Laux said it became a common refrain among Americans in Afghanistan that the United States had not been in the country for 10 years. “It had been in Afghanistan one year, 10 times,” he said.

reminds me of journalists covering Israel.

Too many come for too short a time, with little historical brush-up, not knowing Hebrew, ignorant about customs, religion and tradition, depending on locals (many left-wing or Pals.) as well as not much more knowledge about Arabs, Islam and Arabic.

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