With friends like these...

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/25/225858836/u-s-soldier-crusading-for-afghan-interpreter-who-saved-his-life

Maybe you have heard about this story. The US sometime has the rep for "burning" foreign allies during the Cold War when it made political sense. But in the asymmetrical War on Terror, we have the resource advantage and there's no reason to turn our backs on the people who risked everything to help us - because they actually believed that we would make their countries better.

We're not talking about hundreds of thousands of refugees like Syria here (though it would be principled to do more so poor Jordan and Turkey don't have to bear the whole burden). I doubt the total is higher than a thousand Afghan and Iraqi translators and their families. In some cases, they directly saved American lives, which is more than most US citizens can say about patriotism.

A few years ago, Congress passed a law to grant visas to these folks because they will be in mortal danger once US forces leave. This isn't exaggerated speculation, as many of them have already received death threats (it's no secret that they are "infidel sympathizers" as they stood with US forces in public view). And we know that Taliban and AQ in Iraq types know how to make people disappear in the night.

But years later, only 12% of approved Afghans and 22% of Iraqis have made it to the safety of US shores, mostly because of DHS and State Dept immigration BS that these folks could be potential security risks. Yes it is true that there has been plenty of "green on blue" violence in Afghanistan where infiltrators masked as allies have killed UN forces. But those were fresh recruits in a warzone without much vetting. It's another story for an infiltrator to masquerade as an embedded translator, risk life and limb for years, and then travel to America just hurt us. If any of you know immigrants, you have probably heard stories about what a pain in the ass the background check is. Just imagine how it is for people from unstable Muslim nations. In some cases, the Taliban found out that some translators were getting out, so they may have made false "anonymous tips" to the US embassy that those people were actually threats. And all of a sudden their visas are on hold again.

The problem with bureaucrats is they fixate on the letter of the law rather than the intent and the bigger picture. I am sure none of them wants to be responsible for giving a terrorist a visa, but is that worth condemning our friends? At least transport them to Gitmo or a midwest jail until they are fully cleared. But we can't just leave them behind. And we wonder why they hate us?

Similar to the story of Sydney Shanberg, one soldier (Capt. Zeller) has tried tirelessly to get his translator Shinwari out of Afghanistan, after that man saved his life in the field and they became "brothers". He went to the media, wrote Congressmen, and just when it looked like it was going to work out, more visa delays. Now Zeller has lost contact with Shinwari, and he hopes he just went into hiding with his family rather than something worse.