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.