AFGHANISTAN. Mian Poshteh, Helmand. 2009. Marines debrief after a patrol. Their patrols were accompanied by an Afghan translator. The Afghan, who
gave his name as “Rocky,” was a contractor who had moved to America when he was a child. He joined the
U.S. Army but despite being fluent in Pashto and Dari, the two most common languages in Afghanistan, he
was deployed twice to Iraq, a country where neither language is spoken. When he left the Army he was hired
as a contractor—where he earned a far higher wage—and was sent to Afghanistan as a translator.