They needed the work and spoke English, so the two Iraqi men, Adnan and Laith, grabbed the chance to work as translators for the U.S. military in Baghdad, as did thousands of their compatriots.
Yes, the job offered a steady paycheck in a war-torn nation with a shattered economy.
But it may not have been worth the cost. The nagging fear of being branded a traitor and marked for death, by one Iraqi faction or another. The chronic suspicion by their American employers that they might be terrorist plants. And the discovery that the freedom-loving democracy they've risked life and limb for wouldn't give them asylum when they desperately needed it.
Such dilemmas are made starkly clear in "Betrayed,"a hit Off Broadway play by investigative reporter and novelist George Packer ("The Assassins' Gate").
"Betrayed," adapted from Packer's expansive, riveting 2007 New Yorker piece of the same title, is about the failure of the U.S. to protect and resettle its endangered Iraqi interpreters. The work is clearly the product of intensive, trench-warfare journalism.
~ more... ~
No comments:
Post a Comment