4.3 • 882 Ratings
🗓️ 6 August 2021
⏱️ 32 minutes
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America is leaving Afghanistan. President Joe Biden has set a September 11th withdrawal date and things are continuing apace. As America packs up its gear and goes home it’s leaving behind something far more valuable than MRAPs and M16s—people.
For two decades individual Afghans have stepped up to help the United States and as it leaves the battlefield, some of these interpreters are being left behind.
With us today is former Marine Sergeant, Afghanistan War veteran, and Purple Heart recipient Michael Wendt. He’s an advocate for interpreters and recently published an op-ed in The Hill titled “Getting Afghan interpreters out of Afghanistan isn't progressive: It's the right thing to do.”
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0:25.0 | There are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know, we don't know. One day, all of the facts in about 30 years time will be published. When genocide has been carried out in this country almost with impunity and when it is near |
0:46.5 | transformation is not about intervention. You don't get freedom, people. Freedom is never safeguarded peacefully. Anyone who is surprising you |
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1:23.7 | America is leaving Afghanistan. |
1:26.0 | President Joe Biden has set a September 11th withdrawal date |
1:29.0 | and things are continuing a pace. |
1:31.2 | As America picks up its gear and goes home it's leaving behind |
1:33.8 | something far more valuable than MRAPs and M16s. It's leaving behind people. |
1:39.6 | For two decades individual Afghans have stepped up to help the United States and as it leaves the battlefield some of these interpreters may be left behind or stuck in a kind of limbo. |
1:51.0 | With us today is former Marine Sergeant Afghanistan War veteran and |
1:54.9 | Purple Heart recipient Michael Wendt. He's an advocate for interpreters and |
1:58.8 | recently published an op-ed in the hill titled Getting Afghan |
2:02.2 | interpreters out of Afghanistan isn't progressive it's the right thing to do. Sir, thank you so much for joining us. |
2:10.4 | Okay, so what does it mean when an Afghan becomes an interpreter for the U.S? |
2:20.0 | So when they sign up to become an interpreter for the United States there, I'm not clear if they get to choose their unit or if their unit is chosen for them. |
2:31.0 | I was very front line. I was part of First Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. And so |
2:37.6 | our interpreters, they signed up to live like we lived. I wasn't on a major base. We lived out of patrol bases on the side of the road and in Afghan fields. |
2:49.7 | You know, didn't see a shower for 30 to 40 days at a time, longest being over 70. |
2:56.5 | And our interpreter was right there with us the entire time. |
2:59.7 | When we went on patrol, they went on patrol. |
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