A for­mer trans­la­tor in Iraq, Dustin Lan­gan, wrote me today to tip me off about an inter­est­ing read in _Radar_, about the lack of good trans­la­tors in Iraq. He was recruited by MZM Inc., one of the com­pa­nies con­nected with the “Duke” Cun­ning­ham cor­rup­tion scan­dal, to work in Iraq from 2003 to 2004, and he has some good points to make.
One that is per­son­ally dear to me is the treat­ment of the Iraqi trans­la­tors. As he says:

[Iraqi trans­la­tors] have been treated ter­ri­bly. They’ve been killed. They have not been pro­tected. They have not received visas or any­thing. They’re being killed at very high rates. The result is many peo­ple now in Iraq think if you work with the coali­tion you’re an idiot, because you’re work­ing with some­one who doesn’t care about you, and then you’re killed.

I’ve known a few ‘terps, as they’re called, and my friend George Packer has made this “one of his major concerns”:http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20061127&s=packer112706. It should be one that makes every feel­ing Amer­i­can — whether you sup­ported the war or not — ashamed at how we’re treat­ing these peo­ple.
Any­way, it’s a good inter­view. Thanks for the tip, Dustin!