01:00 AM EST on Sunday, January 30, 2005

At a time when we need all the help we can get, the government has dumped some valuable assets in its war against terror. Since 1998, under the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, it has discharged 20 Arabic and six Farsi translators for being homosexual. The information comes from Defense Department data obtained by the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, under a Freedom of Information Act request.

Especially when the supply of translators is woefully inadequate, this simply won't do. Post-9/11 analyses have noted that the shortage of Arabic linguists was a key factor in our failure to prevent the attacks. Untranslated messages referring to the terrorists' plans were found in a backlog of government data. Worse, it had been evident after the first attack on the World Trade Center, in 1993, that government staffs were short of Arabic translators. Have we still not learned?

Today, the shortage of qualified translators not only weakens U.S. intelligence; it hampers efforts on the ground in Iraq. Yet translators cannot be trained overnight. The Defense Language Institute, in California, puts candidates through more than a year of intensive study. And even then, the nuances of these difficult languages can remain elusive. The United States cannot afford the loss of one skilled translator, let alone two dozen.

The damage we do ourselves with "Don't ask, don't tell" is not confined to translators. Gays and lesbians are being expelled daily from many other defense-related jobs. Infantrymen, engineers and sophisticated-warfare specialists have been let go. The losses mount despite serious personnel shortages.

Are we really willing to allow our concern about homosexuals in the military to undermine the fight against terrorism? It would appear that the answer is yes.