She's Got Chutzpah

Fadya Resho O'Neill: A translator makes a quantum leap from Ohio to the front lines in Iraq.

When the United States went to war with Iraq in March 2003, Fadya Resho O'Neill was minding her own business: the General's Chop House, a steak and seafood restaurant in Waterville, Ohio, that she co-owns with her husband, Dave. Born in Syria, O'Neill, 50, emigrated to the United States at 21. Not long after the war started, a cousin mentioned that the State Department had approached him to become an Arabic-English translator for the military.
"Why don't you go?" O'Neill asked him.
"Why don't you go?" he responded.

This, it turned out, was a life changer of a question. Before O'Neill could say, "Limaza la?" ("Why not?"), she was in a war zone, bouncing around in the open back of a Humvee as a civilian contractor. Since arriving in Iraq in September, O'Neill has interpreted everything from interrogations of Iraqis accused of crimes to discussions between Americans and Iraqis seeking supplies, aid, or information.

One Iraqi asked her, "Tell me honestly, which side are you on?" She said she was on the American side, but that the Americans were on the side of the Iraqi people. He said the Americans were coming to take Iraqi land and buildings. "Are you crazy?" she said. "These people have their own buildings. Do you think anyone who had a chance to live in the United States would come live here?"

It's not just O'Neill's talk that is tough. She's working to renew her contract. "I want to stay at least a year," she says. "I really want to see what happens."