Don't ask, don't translate

Op-Ed Contributor

Don't Ask, Don't Translate

By STEPHEN BENJAMIN
Published: June 8, 2007

Atlanta

IMAGINE for a moment an American soldier deep in the Iraqi desert. His
unit is about to head out when he receives a cable detailing an
insurgent ambush right in his convoy's path. With this information, he
and his soldiers are now prepared for the danger that lies ahead.

Reports like these are regularly sent from military translators'
desks, providing critical, often life-saving intelligence to troops
fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the military has a desperate
shortage of linguists trained to translate such invaluable information
and convey it to the war zone.

The lack of qualified translators has been a pressing issue for some
time - the Army had filled only half its authorized positions for
Arabic translators in 2001. Cables went untranslated on Sept. 10 that
might have prevented the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Today, the
American Embassy in Baghdad has nearly 1,000 personnel, but only a
handful of fluent Arabic speakers.

I was an Arabic translator. After joining the Navy in 2003, I attended
the Defense Language Institute, graduated in the top 10 percent of my
class and then spent two years giving our troops the critical
translation services they desperately needed. I was ready to serve in
Iraq.

But I never got to. In March, I was ousted from the Navy under the
"don't ask, don't tell" policy, which mandates dismissal if a service
member is found to be gay.

My story begins almost a year ago when my roommate, who is also gay,
was deployed to Falluja. We communicated the only way we could: using
the military's instant-messaging system on monitored government
computers. These electronic conversations are lifelines, keeping
soldiers sane while mortars land meters away.

Then, last October the annual inspection of my base, Fort Gordon, Ga.,
included a perusal of the government computer chat system; inspectors
identified 70 service members whose use violated policy. The range of
violations was broad: people were flagged for everything from
profanity to outright discussions of explicit sexual activity. Among
those charged were my former roommate and me. Our messages had
included references to our social lives - comments that were otherwise
unremarkable, except that they indicated we were both gay.

I could have written a statement denying that I was homosexual, but
lying did not seem like the right thing to do. My roommate made the
same decision, though he was allowed to remain in Iraq until the
scheduled end of his tour.

The result was the termination of our careers, and the loss to the
military of two more Arabic translators. The 68 other - heterosexual -
service members remained on active duty, despite many having committed
violations far more egregious than ours; the Pentagon apparently
doesn't consider hate speech, derogatory comments about women or
sexual misconduct grounds for dismissal.

My supervisors did not want to lose me. Most of my peers knew I was
gay, and that didn't bother them. I was always accepted as a member of
the team. And my experience was not anomalous: polls of veterans from
Iraq and Afghanistan show an overwhelming majority are comfortable
with gays. Many were aware of at least one gay person in their unit
and had no problem with it.

"Don't ask, don't tell" does nothing but deprive the military of
talent it needs and invade the privacy of gay service members just
trying to do their jobs and live their lives. Political and military
leaders who support the current law may believe that homosexual
soldiers threaten unit cohesion and military readiness, but the real
damage is caused by denying enlistment to patriotic Americans and
wrenching qualified individuals out of effective military units. This
does not serve the military or the nation well.

Consider: more than 58 Arabic linguists have been kicked out since
"don't ask, don't tell" was instituted. How much valuable intelligence
could those men and women be providing today to troops in harm's way?

In addition to those translators, 11,000 other service members have
been ousted since the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was passed by
Congress in 1993. Many held critical jobs in intelligence, medicine
and counterterrorism. An untold number of closeted gay military
members don't re-enlist because of the pressure the law puts on them.
This is the real cost of the ban - and, with our military so
overcommitted and undermanned, it's too high to pay.

In response to difficult recruiting prospects, the Army has already
taken a number of steps, lengthening soldiers' deployments to 15
months from 12, enlisting felons and extending the age limit to 42.
Why then won't Congress pass a bill like the Military Readiness
Enhancement Act, which would repeal "don't ask, don't tell"? The
bipartisan bill, by some analysts' estimates, could add more than
41,000 soldiers - all gay, of course.

As the friends I once served with head off to 15-month deployments, I
regret I'm not there to lessen their burden and to serve my country.
I'm trained to fight, I speak Arabic and I'm willing to serve. No
recruiter needs to make a persuasive argument to sign me up. I'm
ready, and I'm waiting.

Stephen Benjamin is a former petty officer second class in the Navy.

----------------------
Jim Pickett
via 'Berry
Running the Chicago Marathon AGAIN in support of HIV/AIDS
services. Please sponsor me here -
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