Tuesday, July 24, 2007

After Firing Gay Arabic Translators, Military Resorts to Translating machines


Yet further proof that the Christianists in the senior ranks of the U. S. Military and Congress put their delusional faith ahead of the national interest of the country:

Afterdischarging Arabic language translators for being gay, the military is now forced to rely on a translating machine that has not been fully tested, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-07/nios-eat072007.php). NIST researchers are evaluating a prototype, real-time, two-way translation systems for the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA), point out that wartime military patrols and civilian encounters can be especially dangerous if neither group understands the other’s language.

The DARPA program called TRANSTAC (Spoken Language Communication and Translation System for Tactical Use) is aimed at meeting the shortage of Arabic translators caused by the firing of linguists under the 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Law”.
More than 11,000 soldiers have been discharged because of the law, and more than 800 of them had vital skills needed for military operations. Why is using common sense so challenging to these folks?

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