2:44PM
Pentagon translation conundrum
Issandr El Amrani
A friend email me the hilarious picture below, apparently taken from a manual for a translation device to be used by the Pentagon:
This raises two immediate questions:
1. Are the preparations to invade Iran really that advanced?
2. Why will American soldiers speak Farsi to Indian women?
This raises two immediate questions:
1. Are the preparations to invade Iran really that advanced?
2. Why will American soldiers speak Farsi to Indian women?
Reader Comments (7)
The farsi language vs. the Sari clad woman debacle is indicative of the Pentagon's dire intelligence (why they call it that is beyond me) capability. I shudder at the thought of these people trying to forumlate an educated strategy on what it would take to win back the 'hearts and minds' of Iraqis. As one US marine put it: more McDonald's and KFC will make Iraqis "chill out a bit."
I went to one of those demonstrations for digital voice translators; it was English_Spanish.
What is your name?
Where to you live?
You're under arrest.
Put you hands over your head.
Don't move.
Put your clothes on the counter.
Heheh they should add:
I want my MTV.
Bow down before me, I am your new Allah.
Please stand still and do not cry - I am taking a picture.
Dog leashes are cool in the US.
I can't stop laughing about this, though ultimately, it is quite tragic in implication. And I couldn't resist linking to the image and your post, so thanks.
Pentagon Prep for Iran Invasion?
Do you think there is serious talk in Washington at the moment about invading Iran? I realize that there have been strategic plans for an invasion of Iran for 25 years... I'm wondering if the plans are actually being considered now? I have been under...
i thought they would be more advanced by now. they had this thing already, when they came to former yugoslavia. i think even the SFOR had these. i remember to have read, that they were good for things like "raise your hands over your head!" but the soldiers were surprised, they wouldn't work for "i love you" and "do you want to sleep with me?". but on the other hand, it would have been helpful if they had had these in iraq. i remember an embedded journalist telling the following story. a group of soldiers, advancing to baghdad had to stop, as the support chain broke down. they had there tanks standing in a big circle, protecting their camp, when an old iraqi turned up with his goats. the goats started to climb on the tanks and the soldiers were getting worried of a "goat bomb". at last the old man would turn up himself and walk into the middle of the camp, ignoring the tanks and everything around him. a young soldier on a tank, well educated in arab language manners and language pointed his gun at the man and yelled "SALAMALEIKUM SIR, PUT YOUR HANDS UP - SIR!" i still wonder if the man unserstood anything that boy wanted to tell him. he probably was just pleased by the young american speaking at least some arabic and continued with his goats to a better place to graze.
moritz
I'm sure which ever low level pentagon employee was responsible for putting together this visual aid would apologize for using the 1980s Printshop clip art of the sari clad woman instead of genuine Persian clip art. I'm also sure that in the future that same low level employee will see to it that his/her time is better spent by mastering Photoshop and creating his/her own clip art in order to ensure that our soldiers, whose only knowledge of what native populations look and dress like comes from instruction manuals on their language translating machines, will have the most accurate visual experience possible whilst learning their new programs.