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&#039;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."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.