The State Department: "Looking out for all interests *EXCEPT* America's"

Two (adjacent) Michael Ledeen items at The Corner:
#1:

Marines Rescue Iraqi Puppies, Send Them to San Diego

Really. Nice pictures, too.

Now that you've had the good news, there's #2:

Betrayed by Our Diplomats

...As Owen West says quite accurately, our government—very much including Ambassador Crocker's embassy—somehow just cannot find a way to do the right thing for those Iraqis who have risked life and limb to work with us as translators/interpreters... Every imaginable obstacle is put in the way of these Iraqis, for whom we should instead be arranging medals and scholarships...

If Gates or one of his people would just pound the table and order his staff to get this thing done pronto, I think it would happen. Maybe not; maybe the bureaucratic inertia or resistance is so great that more violent methods are require. Maybe these guys should be sent to Iraqi hot spots themselves, so that they'd get a more accurate appreciation of the bravery and the urgent necessity of the interpreters.

Money quote from West's Post article:

Iraq vets and terps [interpreters] now call State's paper maze the "waiting to die list" - because it requires interpreters to risk death to purchase passports and cross the border undisguised.

Maybe we should just fire all the Staties, and put the Marines in charge.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:09:37 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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