Another good Iraqi gone…
Because of his tenacity, character, and loyalty, I recommended him for command of the whole Iraqi battalion in our area of operations. He was eventually given the job, (we had to get rid of his politically connected, and utterly worthless, boss). MAJ Kareem was given the job, and recently promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. A few days ago he was killed by a suicide bomber in the Old Baqubah Market. I don’t doubt that he was doing his job, looking for shitheads, being a warrior. I will miss him dearly.
Goodbye, Ra’ad (Major) Kareem.
–Chuck
I want to go back, right now, just to be with his family and his men. And to find and kill the sons of whores who planned and resourced this attack. And their families.
The story of a new Iraq is still unfolding. Allowing the terrormongers, the murderers, the foul-minded and craven religious fascist statists to rule Iraq by fear and guns, by death and bombs, by blood and sword would be a tragic historic mistake with generational consequences for your children and your children’s children. Some Iraqis fear for the future. They should. Evil men and evil memes have deep roots in the soil of this land.
I believe that despite the legions of the dazed and confused, regardless of the armies of the book of fear, unfazed by the platoons of merciless murder and undaunted by the pens of the craven and gutless self-proclaimed pundits of doom, we are and will continue winning in Iraq. I refuse to despair like so many others, even though I want too sometimes. The task is daunting. It is tiring. It is necessary.
For every black-robed fool with a gun, we need an armored knight with a bigger gun, better training and something that the men in black robes will never have – a moral code that values human life and individual choices. Don’t allow yourself to be led astray by the daily details, as I’ve so often been tempted to do. There is a big picture in Iraq, and if it can be properly framed, then the road ahead can be made out through the storm of unproductive and mostly useless information about what is happening here in the land of the two rivers.
What is happening? Good and evil men are battling for the soul of Iraq and it’s a messy, ugly scene that rends asunder human lives every day. When your heart is breaking for Iraq, you must ask yourself if you’re willing to abandon her to another sociopathic, psychopathic madman because there is a long line of them waiting to step up and work hard to make the tyrant Saddam’s 30-year litany of horrific crimes against humanity look minor.
Those of you who would rather go back to the days when the murdering and raping was done behind curtains and out of the public eye are fools who deserve a lifetime of bad dreams. You deserve no comfort for aiding and abetting evil men. I hope you have a nightmare every time the Mahdi Army murders someone for being born into the wrong religious sect. I hope you toss restlessly everytime al-Qaeda blows up a nightclub full of innocents, or a group of children at school, or some GIs trying to make the roads of this land safe for Iraqis to conduct commerce. I hope your dreams are haunted by headless hostages who were only trying to help Iraqis have a chance at lives worth living. I hope that when Wahhabists move into your neighborhood you remind them how helpful you were to their cause just before they fine you for being an infidel and offer you a choice of conversion or death.
If the Christian Identity movement had the same resources, membership, tactics and ultraviolent history as fundementalist Muslim groups do, I would preach sermons against them with the same force of conviction. I have no room in my life for fanatics who wish to impose their worldview on me. I would have stayed in Georgia and minded my own business if it hadn’t been for the calling card I received on television September 11, 2001. My days of innocence and bliss are long gone. I went through a period of introspection where I wondered if perhaps it was somehow my fault, or the fault of my society that we have been getting attacked by these madmen for several decades now. The answer is no. Nothing justifies their methodology or complete lack of regard for the sanctity of human life. They must all be put down. And good men will die while undertaking the dangerous task.