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Military Translator SNAFU
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 military translator/contractor. When he applied for the lucrative linguist job, Habib said his recruiter didn't tell him he would be part of a ground assault in Taliban country. He carried 40 pounds of food, water and gear on his back, and kept pace -- barely -- with Marines half his age.The company that recruits most U.S. citizen translators, Columbus, Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel, says it's difficult to meet the increased demand for linguists to aid the 15,000 U.S. forces being sent to southern, Pashto-speaking parts of Afghanistan. Only 7,700 Pashto speakers live in the U.S., according to the 2000 census. Troops and translators say they suspect recruiting companies try to send as many interpreters as possible to Afghanistan to collect fees. Millions of dollars are involved. Known as Category II translators -- U.S. citizens who can obtain a security clearance -- such linguists earn a salary that starts at $210,000 a year. It is going on 8 years since 9/11 and the USA still has not dealt with its own language gap in a meaningful way. The military needed Pashto/Dari/Arabic/Farsi speakers, whatever, then, and even more now. No crash program in training healthy young US citizens to speak these languages was ever started, unlike the case after Sputnik was launched in 1957, when colleges all over the country suddenly started Russian language programs. Josh Habib should have been hired 8 years ago to teach courses in Pashto to 20-somethings. It seems there will be a continuing shortage of translators for another 8 years. Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-07-23 |
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