Aref Assaf, "Due Recognition",  in response to Ahmed Soliman's columns: Waiting for our moment in the
The Record

February 17, 2008

There should be no doubt that Arab Americans are true patriots of the United States. In fact, Arab Americans have a proud history of serving in all branches of the US Armed Forces. History documents that the first Arab American to die for America was Private Nathan Badeen, a Syrian immigrant who died for this country on May 23rd, 1776. Indeed, Arab Americans have fought in every war the U.S. participated in since then. According to Jamal Baadani, "In World War II, there were over 15,000 Arab Americans who served this country to free the world of the German Nazi tyranny and Japanese imperialism." Among the recent and highly decorated Arab Americans are General John Abizaid, General George Joulwan, and Brigadier General James J. David.

Among these who sacrificed their lives was Spc. Farid Elazzouzi of Paterson, N.J., who died June 14 in a bombing near Kirkuk, Iraq. Elazzouzi was born in Morocco. He died before becoming a US citizen. The top U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, posthumously bestowed upon Elazzouzi US citizenship in a special ceremony in Iraq, in a final tribute.

The pivotal service Arabic speaking American citizens are providing the US army in Iraq painfully comes at a very high price. Most Arab Americans who have been wooed either by the financial incentives or loyalty motives eventually make it back to the States. Sadly, some never survive their military tour and are either killed or mortally wounded. Their ultimate expression of patriotism, by deliberate governmental design may go forever unnoticed.

This is the other side of Soliman's important piece, which calls for recognizing the heroic work provided by Arab Americans serving in Iraq. While many are serving in the US Army, many more are employed by American contractors to provide translation services to the Army or to American firms in Iraq. Their service to their country deserves recognition, especially of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

According to a Reuters report published on July of 2007, over 1000 civilians employed by the US army were killed in Iraqi and Afghanistan. Add to this number the more than 14,000 who were wounded, some of whom with permanent and severely disabling injuries. Working as translators, these civilian employees are dying without proper recognition for a job which was previously filled by regular US soldiers. According to the Reuters findings, for every four US soldiers killed, at least one contracted civilian employee was killed. But at a Congressional hearing in May, 2007, Joseph McDermott, the Assistant Inspector General for Iraq, quoted Labor Department statistics as saying that of 900-plus contractors killed by the end of April, 224 were U.S. citizens. Thus, it should be noted that most civilian contractors killed were not even Americans; many were Asians.

True, while many Arab American civilians have willingly served and continue to serve in Iraq as translators, many have done so because of the monetary incentives offered them or some other offers of permanent residency or even US citizenship. This in no way ought to deny them proper recognition especially after sacrificing their lives to serve America.

A few months ago, a persistent representative from a well known contractor for the US Army reached out to me to enlist my support to establish a recruiting center in Paterson for civilians to serve as translators and support staff in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite repeated calls to my office and some phone conversations, I finally answered that I refuse to use the ploy of financial incentives to send people to their death. Had I accepted the offer, my financial compensation would have been to the tune of $2,500 per each successful recruit.

Do not misunderstand me, for I believe that as American citizens, we have an obligation to serve and die for our country - but that is a personal choice. To use the good offices of AAF to encourage and entice others to do so would be immoral.

It should be mentioned that many Arabic language papers in New Jersey and New York (and even some TV stations) promote this program, raking in huge advertising revenues. I just refuse to be a merchant of death. I discussed the issue with an Arab language newspaper executive whose reply was rather cynically typical: "We cannot choose the contents of our advertisements, because our paper relies on them for its survival on advertising dollars." He added that if he would stop publishing these ads, "others will gladly accept the offer."