Afghani Interpreter Thanks Army Personnel for Fighting for His Country

Here is a guest post that I am very pleased to have on my blog:

Hi, my name is Shah Wali Fazli. I have written a book called "The Interpreter" which will be published in June/July this year. (See his website www.shahsight.com and his blog http://shahsight.blogspot.com/)

It is a fiction based on my experiences as an interpreter working in the U.K. and Germany to help NATO forces in Helmand, Afghanistan.

We tend to know soldiers if we are a member of their family or a friend or a soldier ourselves or we work with them.

I know soldiers from working with them.

Now I know why their families are proud of them because I am proud of myself for working with them.

I joined them to help free my country. I didn't particularly feel anything for them at that time. They were doing what I needed them to do.

Then, as I saw the hell they chose to go through to help my people, I grew to understand them and to care for them. Now I consider them as being part of my own family.

You, their countrymen, love them because they fight for your country. I love them because they are fighting for my country, Afghanistan.

I was filled with love for them to see how much they cared about the women and the children of Afghanistan. I was thrilled to see how much they wanted to avoid offending my people.

I was sure they would be careful not to harm us in Afghanistan if they could possibly avoid it. I had their full attention when I advised them on how they should behave in my country.

At that moment I realized that there is no job more fulfilling and more prestigious than being a soldier or than being among these soldiers.

I am proud to say I work for the army not because they carry guns and fire them, but because they care for our children, for our women and for our men, and because they fight the enemy of our humanity, the Taliban.

I am sure you have seen the Taliban execute couples merely for being in love. I am sure you have seen the Taliban beating women on the street. I am sure you have seen the footage on TV.

I have seen it with my naked eyes.

I know what these soldiers deserve to be called. They deserve to be called "heroes."

I know why they should be looked at as the saviors of humanity in my country. They are fighting one of the worst people on earth in the most difficult terrain -- in the mountains of Afghanistan.

From the bottom of my heart I am grateful to these soldiers, to your spouses, to your relations, to your friends who are fighting for us.

And I am grateful to you for your own courage and untiring support in allowing them to free my country.