Yesterday I had high praise for our ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker. Today I have to drop a very different shoe, because, 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. The Ledeen family has been in the rescue business for several years now, and our experiences fit perfectly with Owen’s account. Every imaginable obstacle is put in the way of these Iraqis, for whom we should instead be arranging medals and scholarships. My “favorite” horror story is about an unusually brave woman who worked for the Marines on the battlefield during the battle of Fallujah and then for Special Forces at Hilla. I wish I had the praise she has received from those soldiers. She wants to work for our military, and she’s ideal for both language and cultural training. But she’s always turned down at the last minute because there are “security concerns.” She’s not (yet) a citizen.

Owen asks at the end of his fine piece, who are you gonna trust? Our warriors on the battlefield, or some bureaucrat in Amman or Nebraska? It’s so obvious, and it seems like it should be so easy to fix. 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.

I keep forgetting that Condi Rice actually vowed to send her diplomats away from the big embassies and out into the field. Has that happened? Anybody know? I do remember there was a protest at State, but then what? Love to hear. Meanwhile, save the interpreters.