It really pisses me off when people assume that just because you are bilingual, translating is something as easy as breathing. Even for someone completely fluent in two languages, it’s HARD. I worked as an amateur translator back in college and even though the pay was generous it’s not something I would ever pursue as a career. It’s extremely stressful to be caught between several people all expressing their frustrations at you and you trying to stay neutral, and that’s in a business negotiation setting. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be trying to do that in a volatile situation like Iraq.
And it really gets me when people think that interpreters are translators*. They do so much more than that. Besides what others have said here, there are a bunch of things that you might not think of at first unless you’ve been there. Think, for example, if you were part of an army that’s occupying the US, and you gathered some propaganda material of the American resistence. The translation comes back and it references a Woman Fascination film. You’d be confused, right? Well, the 'terp’s job is to say “It’s not Woman Fascination film, it’s a Lady Gaga video.” but then he’d have to explain to you who Lady Gaga was and what implications that has for the propaganda.
And imagine you’re trying to interrogate someone. You use the Fear Up approach. So you get in the guy’s face, scream, and throw things. It’s very important that you 'terp carry over those emotions. They need to be a part of the process. They need to scare the person by also shouting and being animated. If they’re a really bad actor, or they’re slow in their translation, your approach won’t work. The guy would laugh at you.
Those are just a few examples of how “translator” != “interpreter”, especially in a war zone.
*Not that HazelNutCoffeedid or would.
I also don’t think that asking a random Iraqi bystander (for example, a witness to a suicide bomber) to do an interview/interrogation with the interpretor over a laptop connection is going to build a feeling of trust. If it’s too dangerous for the interpretor to be there in person, why should the witness feel safe pointing out the ne’er-do-wells in his neighberhood?
Video teleconferencing is barely good enough for buisness meetings, where everyone is more or less looking to reach some kind of consensus. Doing it under stressfull conditions just leads to frustration.
Reported