Posted on 08/25/2021 2:51:59 PM PDT by KeyLargo
Sakhidad Afghan was 19 when he started working as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, in 2009. His father was sick and he wanted to help support their extended family of 18. In his first year, he saw combat with the Marines in the Battle of Marjah, but he remained an interpreter until the fall of 2014, when American troops drew down and his job disappeared. By then he’d received an anonymous death threat over the phone, so he’d applied for a special visa to live in the United States. He’d been in the application pipeline for three years when, in March 2015, he went to see about a new interpreting job in Helmand.
Days later, one of his brothers got a phone call from a cousin, asking him to come over and look at a picture that had been posted on Facebook. The picture was of Sakhidad; he had been tortured and killed and left by the side of the road. He was 24. A letter bearing the Taliban flag was found stuffed into a pants pocket. It warned that three of his brothers, who also worked for coalition forces, were in for the same.
Sakhidad Afghan’s death reflects an overlooked legacy of America’s longest, and ongoing, war: the threat to Afghans who served the U.S. mission there. In 2014, the International Refugee Assistance Project, a nonprofit based in New York City, estimated that an Afghan interpreter was being killed every 36 hours.
The visa that Sakhidad Afghan was waiting for was intended as a lifeline for interpreters who are threatened. Congress approved the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program in 2009, and some 9,200 Afghans have received an SIV, along with 17,000 of their dependents. But the number of visas has lagged behind the demand, as has the pace at which the State Department awarded them. By law, an application is supposed to be processed within nine months; it often takes years. And now, unless Congress extends the program, it will close to applicants at the end of this year. An estimated 10,000 interpreters may be left vulnerable—a prospect that the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John W. Nicholson, warned could “bolster the propaganda of our enemies
Dejavu all over again
The tragic fate of stolen elections.
Joseph Stolen is an idiot — literally.
Biden is going to leave thousands of American citizens stranded in Afghanistan - the State Dept. isn’t even sure how many. If he’s going to leave Americans to the tender mercies of the Taliban, why would anyone expect him to treat our allies with any decency?
Let’s not forget that the interpreters were paid, that yes they were helping us but it was in defense of their own country, and that they were not promised a new life in America.
QUESTION to TA Frail....
What is more tragic? The fate of these interpreters or the over 2400 American lives lost and the over 20,000 injuries sustained by men and women trying to give 12th Century savages a chance at a better life?
I think that the KIA and WIA have more than paid that debt.
Folks seem to think that these interpreters were plucked from university and speak perfect English. NOPE. In the beginning of the war, they did have folks that were fluent in both. The one I dealt with had folks that were able to escape in the 80s, lived and grew up in the DC area, owned his own company and wanted to give back and try to help. The ones that were out in the sticks with the GRUNTS, barely passable English.
And don’t think for a moment that they didn’t have sympathy for the Taliban or how things were in that country prior to late October 2001. They were getting paid and paid well.
Some, probably, are worth their weight in gold. Others not so much. There were many instances of them feeding info to the bad guys.
Afghanistan is hell.
So is Pakistan so is SYRIA so as Lebanon so Somalia and any other Islamic nation
I highly suggest this book
In my early days of learning about Islam right after 911 I read his terrorism timeline. It went over every terrorist event worldwide that was documented from the 1970s on. It was insane
tens of thousands of incidents all the time. Suicide bombings. Machine guns. Explosives 🧨 hijackings were common
What “ religion “. World produce such behavior from its adherents?
Prophet of doom
Book by Craig Winn
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DescriptionThe depiction of the prophet by the most revered Muslim sources reveals behavior that is immoral, criminal, and violent. The five oldest and most trusted Islamic sources don’t portray Muhammad as a great and godly man. ... Google Books
Originally published: 2004
Jen is going to be soooo angry! You said “stranded.”
Risked their lives for the US military? Why would they do that? Were we paying them? Or perhaps they risked their lives to achieve something for themselves or their country, and they failed.
I heard a report yesterday that the Taliban has sentenced a man to death because he is the brother of one of the interpreters that aided the Americans.
That was my first thought as well. “Stranded” is not a word that we can use anymore.
So ridiculous.
I think we’re all paid up on our Afghanistan account.
Many Americans in Afghanistan would like to come to America but will be left in Afghanistan. Tough luck, guys. Better luck next time.
If they flew to Mexico, can’t they just walk in and be welcomed??
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