Is America Abandoning It's Afghan Translators?

Sulaiman, a combat interpreter, in Kabul, Afghanistan. An American visa has remained beyond his grasp, despite years of effort. Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

Afghan Interpreters For The U.S. Are Left Stranded And At Risk -- New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — The first time the Taliban tried to kill him, Sulaiman was driving to his base when his truck was hit by a rocket, knocking him down a cliff.

The insurgents knew his vehicle, its license plate number and, most important, his occupation: a high-value combat interpreter for United States Special Operations troops in Afghanistan.

They left him for dead in that attack, in July 2011, but he got out with a broken collarbone, two broken ribs and a new sense of caution. Since then, he has survived two more attacks.

Sulaiman’s American supervisor no longer lets him travel by car when he leaves his military base to visit his family. But no one feels that is protection enough, given the premium that the Taliban put on killing Afghans who help American forces.

His best hope is one that has remained beyond his grasp despite years of effort: an American visa.

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My Comment: It appears that America's Afghan translators are experiencing the same fate as their Iraqi counterparts.

Documentary Explores The Perils For Iraqi Translators Who Helped The U.S.

Film Highlights Perils Faced By Iraqis Who Helped U.S. -- Radio Free Europe

NEW YORK -- There are more than 3,000 names on Kirk Johnson's list -- a list that has brought him incredible joy but which has also taken an emotional toll.

The names are of Iraqis who worked alongside Americans as translators and advisers during the more than eight-year-long Iraq war and who now fear for their lives and their families' safety. Just last week, one was mailed a syringe filled with poison and a note telling him to inject himself before the senders did so themselves.

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My Comment: Talk about deserting your friends and allies.

Building A Better Translation Device For Our Troops

A Robotic Translator for Troops Strangers in a strange land could use a robotic translator to help them communicate fluently with locals in the proper dialect and tone. U.S. Army via Wikimedia

DARPA's Newest Language Translator Would Be Less Handheld Device, More Robot Assistant -- Popular Science

Genuine language translation has been one of the Holy Grails of DARPA research for decades, as it would vastly simplify military and humanitarian operations abroad and otherwise bridge the gaps between cultures made persistent by an inability to communicate. Now, rather than banking on some kind of handheld universal translator device (very Star Trek) DARPA wants an thinking robot that can interpret various languages and make decisions about what it hears (very Star Wars).

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My Comment: More news and info on this new military translator can be found here.

Lack Of Translators Hurts U.S. War On Terror

Interpreters provide vital local knowledge, as well as language skills.
Photo from The BBC

From The Washington Times:

U.S. national security agencies remain woefully short of foreign-language speakers and translators nearly eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks resulted in a war on an enemy that often communicates in relatively obscure dialects, current and former officials say.

The necessary cadre of U.S. intelligence personnel capable of reading and speaking targeted regional languages such as Pashto, Dari and Urdu "remains essentially nonexistent," the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence wrote in a rare but stark warning in its 2010 budget report.

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My Comment: In the past few years the U.S. military has been boasting about providing cultural awareness programs to its troops. I have no problem with such a program ... in fact I support it .... but it is all for nothing if the language barrier cannot be breached.

The Problem Of Finding Translators To Serve With Our Troops In Afghanistan

This July 3, 2009 photo shows Josh Habib, left, a 53-year-old translator for the U.S. Marines, standing next to a U.S. Marine from the 2nd MEB, 1st Battalion 5th Marines as they patrol inside a village in the Nawa district of Afghanistan's Helmand province. U.S. troops in Helmand say companies that recruit and hire military translators are sending linguists to southern Afghanistan who are too old to serve in a theater of combat or who do not have the right language skills, which puts them and the U.S. forces they work for at risk. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

Many Translators Unfit In Any Language -- AP

NAWA, Afghanistan — Josh Habib lay in a dirt field, gasping for air. Two days of hiking with Marines through southern Afghanistan's 115-degree heat had exhausted him. This was not what he signed up for.

Habib is not a Marine. He is a 53-year-old engineer from California hired by a contracting company as a military translator. When he applied for the lucrative linguist job, Habib said his recruiter gave no hint he would join a ground assault in Taliban land. He carried 40 pounds of food, water and gear on his back, and kept pace — barely — with Marines half his age.

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My Comment: This is a disgrace .... but a so common problem in most conflicts when foreign soldiers are used. My French Canadian friends who serve in the Canadian Arm Forces in Afghanistan have a problem understanding the heavy accent English spoken by the British .... let alone the Afghan/Pashtun language language that is spoken around them.