John Oliver shines a hard light on Iraq and Afghanistan's stranded U.S. military translators

John Oliver shines a hard light on Iraq and Afghanistan's stranded U.S. military translators
(Image credit: Last Week Tonight)

At the beginning of this video, John Oliver promises that by the end you'll be "extremely angry at a donkey." What he really means is that you'll be angry at America for apparently making it a bigger priority to bring a stray donkey home to the U.S. from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan than the local translators who worked with the U.S. military at great personal risk.

Congress approved special visas for Iraqis and Afghanis who worked with the U.S. military, but very few of those have been approved, Oliver said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight, explaining that a "shocking number" of translators who have applied for one of these visas are "stuck in bureaucratic limbo." Getting a life-saving U.S. visa "should not be like a lottery, where the odds are terrible — these people risked their lives for us," Oliver said. "It should be more like a Little League award ceremony, where everyone's a winner, because they're all an important part of the f--king team."

There are some lighter moments — the doubly translated version of Frozen's "Let It Go" is a nice touch — a lot of mostly (but not entirely) bleeped-out swearing, and ample clips from a Vice News documentary. The special visa program in Afghanistan is set to expire at the end of this year. Maybe the issue will get the John Oliver bump it probably deserves. --Peter Weber

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.