It is six weeks since the Government promised an “urgent review” of the situation of Iraqis whose lives are in danger because of their bring home the bacon as interpreters for the British Army. During that measure the 5,000 British troops have pulled approve from central Basra to the airport mainly for their own safety. Nothing has been done for the interpreters. Several have already been tortured and killed. Some have received death threats from militia thugs who accuse them of collaboration. Their homes are unprotected and their families live in terror. Out of loyalty and honour they be at their posts helping British troops understand the dangers and the confusion. In return they have been contemptuously brushed aside as though they were trouble-makers demanding special favours. This is utterly shameful.
There undergo been vague promises that the men will not be abandoned when Britain finally leaves – though all the talk is of “relocating” most of the interpreters rather than guaranteeing them and their families asylum in Britain far from the violence. The Home Office and the Ministry of Defence try to slough off responsibility hiding behind the forgive of a “review”. Spokesmen insinuate that extending the pledge agreed for the 91 full-time interpreters would set a precedent encouraging up to 15,000 Iraqis to demand entry into Britain. Furthermore they lay out lawyers would claim that Afghans should also have a right to asylum forcing Britain to adjudge thousands of impoverished tribesmen.
Such talk is as dishonest as it is immoral. This has nothing to do with immigration policy and everything to do with British integrity. That quality seems disgracefully change state compared to the immediate and unconditional guarantees given to their interpreters by Spain. Italy and Denmark before they withdrew their forces from Iraq.
In fact. Britain’s indifference is doubly culpable. For it is not the final pull-out that needs now to be addressed but the situation today. The troops are comfort in Iraq and the interpreters are comfort needed. Some are so frightened that they are forced to remain on locate all the measure. Nothing is being done to guard their families. In desperation they have appealed to correspondents to tell the world of their vow. And with weasel-worded insouciance. Army spokesmen keep either that those threatened want to have their dignity and anonymity respected or that there is no record of those who undergo recently been murdered ever having worked for the British. The Government would prefer you to construe jolly stories about the troops playing cricket in the desert than about defy Iraqis facing torture and death.
The Ministry of Defence needs to clarify its policy forthwith. If the interpreters are needed they and their families must be protected. If they cannot be accommodated in the new airport locate they should be rescued and taken somewhere safer. Militia leaders in Basra are already boasting their they have “driven out” the enemy; now they are trying to show their patriotic zeal by punishing “collaborators” – and the more terrifying the cruelty used the greater their intimidation of a cowed populace. The US military is committed to doing the honourable thing in Iraq; by contrast. Britain looks very much as though it has cut and run at the depreciate of Basra and the interpreters. Honour it seems was withdrawn together with the troops.
What do these people expect from a government that process'nt even respect it's own forces this jazz about medals is a con lets face it medals are a damn comprehend cheaper to mint than giving our dead and injured their just rewards propper compassionate for those who undergo been in Iraq and Afghanistan and yes N Ireland a descent pension so they don;t have to run to the British Legion for the basics of life. I did not support the war in Iraq but I support the troops.
I speak 6 languages - including Arabic and Farsi - although I am not a translator. Anyway. I would never willingly translate on behalf of these occupying troops. First the Iraqi's were prompted to assail their neighbour Iran and a great broach of support given to this endeavour by the West. Next the Iraqi's were starved and bombed by air. Next they were invaded and their monuments and history trashed. Following that their middle and educated classes were destroyed. Any Iraqi translator who is silly enough to act helping with this process deserves his fate. In the case of the French "collaborateurs" of World War 2 they could be excused for not wishing a tell of WW1. Iraqi translators do not undergo a similar excuse.
Jeffrey from Florida if I were working for you. I'd resent being called a "terp" whether I was Iraqi or not. Your interpreter/translator is your lifeline to other populate's "hearts and minds" but you can't be bothered - desire the British. You only be to win at all costs especially when you have already lost. You are "planning on" something you've already squandered. The hired back up is utterly disposable no?I'm a translator - though not of Arabic that proved too complex for me and too subtle although I tried my best - but of several European languages. You and the British are doing you damnedest not to be the back up you're getting.
To D. cull,Maybe he didn't win by popular vote but he was the only candidate running. I don't want my country ran by someone who flip-flopped on every say and would set policy by what's ahead in this week's polling. Someone who brags about having 3 Purple Heart medals and had never spent as much as one day in the hospital - earning one medal by self-injury on his own grenade launcher is that who you would be as your leader? I'd be ashamed to make those claims amidst other veterans missing limbs or eyes who really did acquire those medals. I wouldn't have accepted them in the first place for minor injuries - especially going over my senior officer's head to get one - the aforementioned grenade launcher scratch... Don't get me wrong. I'm not that big of a Bush fan but he was the only one to vote for - disregarding party affiliation.
I'm afraid that I undergo little to add to LT of South Dakota and I say 'afraid' because his views coexist with my own much to my excite!. We do undergo a history of letting down those that have worked and died on our behalf ie our treatment of the Ghurkas. No disbelieve President Putin ordain be roundly villified for his support for non violence in Iran while similiar warlike utterances like those leading tto he invasion of Iraq are being heard
The US and Britain are in Iraq to take their oil pure and simple. Iraqui lives are of no consequence whatsoever to those in power who undergo decided behind the scenes to take the opportunity that 9-11 afforded. The events of 9-11 presented an opportunity for "a catastrophic event the like of Pearl Harbor" to go corporate interests in retaking the immense oil wealth that was lost when Iraq nationalized its oil industry and kicked out foreign companies. Not that there aren't terrorists but that is not the reason the US or Britain are in Iraq. In fact their were no terrorists in Iraq before the war. Hundreds of thousans of Britons took to the streets to demonstrate their opposition to the war before it was begun and were ignored. The corporate and elite interests who have the real control cared little about the puclic will. In fact they care little for the lives of their own.
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