Because the US leaves Afghanistan, it should fulfill its obligation to interpreters

As the US leaves Afghanistan, it must fulfill its obligation to interpreters

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Among those in the second category, we can unfortunately count life-threatening jeopardy to a group of Afghans who hitched themselves literally and spiritually to the United States.

We refer specifically to the Afghans who served as translators and in many other critical capacities — including, for instance, cooks, drivers, electricians, construction workers, base security, diplomatic linguists, cultural advisers and, of course, combat interpreters — during that 20-year period.

They served faithfully and effectively at every level, from working with the senior-most US staff at headquarters to working with squads of US troops patrolling and operating “outside the wire.” They endured the same risks — including to their lives — as our troops did. In many cases, what they did made the difference between mission success or failure, and between being killed or surviving to fight another day. Over these two decades, it’s likely that thousands of US soldiers, sailors, airmen and…

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