Dick Lugar: “along with Senator Bond and Senator Coleman, I will offer an amendment that addresses an issue about which there has…”

“along with Senator Bond and Senator Coleman, I will offer an amendment that addresses an issue about which there has been much news reporting and hearings in both House and Senate subcommittees; namely, the situation facing Iraqi and Afghani interpreters and translators who are bravely working on the front lines with our soldiers and diplomats. Such work is vital to our efforts in these two conflicts, yet it often makes them and their families targets for insurgents. This past week, Mr. George Packer wrote a lengthy piece in the New Yorker on this that I commend to my colleagues. My interest in this issue, like many of my colleagues, began last summer when I received e-mails from a first lieutenant in the Indiana National Guard who had recently returned from a tour in Iraq and from a sergeant in the Army who was at the time serving in a combat support hospital, also in Iraq. Aaron Inkenbrandt wrote: During my year in Iraq, I served as a military Transition team member. As such, I lived exclusively with Iraqi forces and acted as a mentor and advisor to them. My team and I did much to build and train these forces under very difficult circumstances. However, we could not have achieved success without our Iraqi interpreters. I believe that our Nation must reciprocate the loyalty proved by these men by offering to them sanctuary in the United States. Iraqi interpreters are an outstanding group of people.…”