R.D. Kaplan is curiously ambivalent on the need for such expertise. On the one hand ("Rule No. 3: Emulate 2^nd-Century Rome"), he notes that "trained area specialists" are "indispensable," and decries our forces' current shortage of, for example, Arabic speakers. On the other hand ("Rule No. 2: Stay on the Move"), he says that we need to avoid "becoming too deeply implanted in more than a handful of countries at once," and that, "Here our provincialism helps," quoting with approval a retired special ops colonel who told him, "Our insularity protects us from becoming colonials." Note, by the way, the presumptuousness of warning against getting deeply involved in "more than a handful of countries at once"; it seems we're having a hard enough time keeping control of just one.