I am wondering whether you are serious or not.
Our Armed Forces are in dire need for Arab linguists and people familiar with the costums and life of people in the Middle East. Those Iraqi-Americans are doing a very important job training our troops in language skills which they need to to do their job in Iraq. How are our troops supposed to interact with locals if they can’t speak with them on a basic level? Most soldiers don’t speak Arabic, much less one of the Iraqi dialects.
Those aren’t fighting jobs. Language trainers aren’t easily replaced, as you insinuate. You’re comment to replace six Iraqi language-trainers with six American combat troops is totally senseless. Are American combat troops supposed to train fellow troops in Arabic and Iraqi costums? Doesn’t make sense. Also we have no clue how old those six Iraqi-Americans are and whether they are physically fit to serve in combat roles.
...and no those six Iraqis aren’t cowards. They apparently are doing more for our cause and our troops than the vast majority of Americans.
Thanks for being a voice of reason here.
Seems to me these guys are going out of their way (I’m sure they are well paid, though) to help prepare our soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines, etc. for the situations that they’ll face over there. They could have just as easily just sat on their bums and did nothing, and they’d be perfectly within their rights to do that.
IIRC, the IA is having little trouble meeting its recruiting goals. I didn’t know that the folk in question were Americans, but even if they weren’t, the services they’re providing are far more useful than serving as twelve more boots on the ground in Iraq doing “the job they should be doing.”