Despite the ongoing shortage of Arabic translators, the U.S. Military has repeatedly shown that it values sexuality over skills. Between 1998 and 2004, the military discharged 20 Arabic and six Farsi speakers under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Now, at a time when the U.S. direly needs to communicate in the Middle East, it’s time to choose between discrimination and safeguarding that nation.
The policy asserts that acknowledged homosexuals in the armed forces negatively affect unit cohesiveness within the military and therefore its effectiveness-one of the same arguments used against racial integration in the military. However, a 2003 Human Rights Watch report details that there is no evidence to support this argument. Furthermore, several U.S. allies, including Great Britain, Canada and Israel allow openly gay soldiers to serve in the same capacity as heterosexuals.
According to Pentagon data from between 1998 and 2003, at least 73 people were discharged from the U.S. military’s Defense Language Institute for declaring their homosexuality. No less than 37 of these discharges took place after September 11. These linguists are only a select few of the three or four service members on average who are discharged every day because they are gay.
To illustrate the shortage of Arabic speakers in the U.S. Government, ABC News reported in November 2003 that the State Department had a total of 279 Arabic speakers. Fewer than 60 of those were fluent and only five had the ability to hold their own against commentators on Middle Eastern television programs. At the same time, only 1,300 active-duty Army personnel were listed as able to speak or read some Arabic, with an additional 100 in training, out of 500,000 active duty soldiers. (creditcadabra.com)
This shortage largely exists because the U.S. government did not actively recruit Arabic speakers until after the attacks of September 11. As a result, the government “cannot translate all the foreign language counterterrorism and counterintelligence material it collects,” as a Justice Department inspector general admitted in a September 2004 report.
In Iraq today, the vast majority of U.S. soldiers must shout in English or use gestures to converse with Iraqis, often in unstable, dangerous situations. On Arabic language television around the world, there are few representatives of the U.S. government who can argue their case without the use of translators. Every time an Arabic translator is discharged from the military, another avenue of communication is removed and our already over-extended soldiers are put in further danger. Despite the threat to our country’s security, the government would rather harass some of its citizens than allow them to serve their nation with honor.
