Cheers!
Posted on 09/01/2008 6:42:41 PM PDT by neverdem
The military translator from Queens sat beside his mother in a wheelchair in a hospital room on Manhattan’s Upper East Side on Thursday. His right leg was encased in a black boot, affixed with Velcro straps from his swollen toes to his knee. What was left of his left leg, which had been amputated at the knee, was wrapped in a snug elastic rubber stocking on which the word “stump” had been scrawled.
The man’s name is Syed Shah and he was grievously wounded in July in a bomb attack on a military convoy in Afghanistan, where he had been working as a translator for soldiers battling the Taliban. Mr. Shah is learning to walk with a prosthetic leg, though his progress is severely hindered because he cannot put any weight on his partly shattered right leg.
Yet to his family’s shock and anguish, and to his doctors’ awe, Mr. Shah is aiming to be back in Afghanistan by year’s end.
“I don’t want him to go,” said Mr. Shah’s mother, Rashida Shah. “I thought it was a safe job, but then, after one and a half months, this happened.” She paused. Her eyes welled with tears. “I was very upset,” she said.
It is unclear how many military translators have been injured or killed working in Iraq and Afghanistan, though estimates put the figure at hundreds. Local militants fighting American forces vilify translators and make them targets, seeing their work as acts of betrayal.
Yet Mr. Shah said his reason for wanting to return was simple: Working in Afghanistan instilled in him a sense of purpose that he had not quite felt before.
“I developed a bond over there with people, buddy relationships,” Mr. Shah said. “I understand the dialogues, I can decode messages. It gives me a....”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I’m curious what his religion is. His courage is beyond question - I just wonder if he might finally be one of those “moderate Muslims” we always hear about, but never get to see publicly condemning the actions of the terrorists...
I’m curious what his religion is.
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Well, his name certainly isn’t Irish, English, Scottish, Italian, German, French or Jewish -— so...... :-)
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
He is a brave man that I will be glad to welcome as a fellow citizen.
This... in the New York Times!?!
I’m betting he’s an apostate. The overwhelming majority of educated Pakistanis I knew were. It’s the next generation that often become neo-islamists.
Few educated people believe that idiotic religion. It has more to do with antiwestern resentment than any spiritual awakening. That’s why leftist make common cause with them.
bfl
Come again?
Look at a list of the top echelons of Al-Qaeda (some now deceased).
Cheers!
I think they count as "few"...
(some now deceased).
... and "fewer".
But to say "nobody educated" goes in for it is, alas, untrue.
More's the pity.
Cheers!
I said “few” educated people. Among educated Pakistanis, in my experience only, the vast majority are apostates who identify more strongly with their Hindu brethren than unwashed Arab masses.
Cheers!
Arab Liberals on the 'Terrorist Doctors' Plot in the U.K.
Not few enough.
I was speaking of educated Pakistanis I knew. Actually, most of the non-Christian Arabs I’ve know were pretty much apostates as well.
I doubt that Mohammad Atta was so much a devout Muslim as a bitter antiwesterner.
Dear Fellow FRs:
I went to Office Depot today...They had a sale on DVDs...You know stuff that no one wants...2 for 1?
In this discount bin was John McCain’s life story.. Faith of My Father...I bought it...
I watched this tonight and thought...
My God, we do not know this man. We have no clue...yet we all need to learn from him.
Go to Office Deport tomorrow and buy the DVD... 9 dollars for two...Watch it and pass it on....
I’m sick to death at the small people still on this forum who continue to bad mouth McCain...I’ve come around... He’s a great American and we should be all proud that he is our candidate...
I have 60 days to promote this man...I’m tired of hearing the negatives from the bloggers here....You know who they are...
Let’s work to get our ticket elected...
Thanks for the ping!
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