Michael Yon brings another excellent, if slow-loading dispatch from Iraq. I copied the photo in question to my server, but Michael Yon owns the copyright. I don’t think he’ll mind that I took a tiny load off of his server processing cycles, and his site is pretty slow with all the photos in one post.
Some people at home complain that we will lose more soldiers by putting more out with Iraqis. They probably are right. Heavily armed Iraqi police and soldiers have had hundreds of chances to kill me personally, and haven’t done so yet. They are not all our enemies.
Though we will almost certainly lose more soldiers by weaving them more tightly with Iraqi forces and people, this is a price we must be willing to face. I might feel guilty writing that we have to take these chances if I were not planning to stay out with them.
There are many compelling photos in Desires of the Human Heart, Part II. Yon reports on the humanitarian aspects of day to day soldiering. Yon gets the nuts and bolts of the war in a way a politician never will. You won’t find Nancy Pelosi or John Murtha hanging out with Iraqi Police or taking pictures of Iraqi kids. They’re too busy planning jihad and ensuring that Islamic fundamentalism remains a strong force against freedom in places like Iraq.
There is a side to this war that cannot be captured in any kind of statistics. The importance of personal relationships among the soldiers and their Iraqi counterparts cannot be captured in quick stories or numbers. A huge part of this war comes down to personal relationships and respect. It’s not about killing. That’s only a small part of it. It’s about building: building bonds that build societies. Giving Iraqi civilians a real alternative to those who create and then flee from civil havoc. Terrorists don’t pick up the trash on the way back from blowing up the electrical stations.
Do you think al-Qaeda would have stopped to help this man on the side of the road? No, because in their eyes, life is cheap, and death is a reward. Fools.
The image above speaks volumes about the values I hold high. To nurture life, to protect life, to value life. Nothing is greater.