War is a very personal endeavor. We find ourselves here involved in close friendships with one another as well as with the many Iraqis we interact with every day on the streets. We are also very close to our interpreters who share every danger with us. We are all intertwined and nothing happens to one group without it affecting the other.
Recently, I found myself in the 28th Combat Support Hospital emergency room where one of our most loyal interpreters was being treated after being injured in an attack. While his prognosis was excellent, he was very shaken. As he lay on a gurney with his head wrapped and an oxygen mask on his face, he saw me approach and immediately grabbed my arm and began to ask me about each soldier in the truck. He referred to them all as his “brothers” and he meant it. Not knowing his own condition he told me he loved Americans and America. He made me promise that I would take his heart to America if he died. He was going to be fine (he left the hospital the next day) but I could not convince him, so I promised.
Another Iraq dispatch from Michael Yon.
More – Yon on CNN.
I’m always very moved by these posts, where one sees, amidst chaos and horror, the Gospel at work: “Love thy neighbour as thyself.”
It’s an interesting thing about human beings: often it takes the worst to bring out the best.
God bless all our–Canadian and Allies–fighting men and women and God have mercy on those who use terror and indiscriminate violence to carry out their nefarious deeds.
I thank God for the good the Allies are doing in the ME, both militarily and in terms of supporting the people there. It’s no wonder that many have grown to love the Westerners who are putting their lives on the line to bring aid and to try to put a stop to the ruthlessness of the jihadists, who so mercilessly exploit and attack their own neighbours.
“He made me promise that I would take his heart to America if he died.”
That’s quite a contrast to Alec Baldwin’s pledge to take his mange carcass out of America if he was disappointed by an election result.
Glad the fellow is going to be Okay. Such a contrast to the egoistic/egocentric arrogant greedy politicians and government servants here!
I bet he won’t complain about post-traumatic stress disorder either.
Two observations.
1) This is a typical Arab melodramatic thing – their hyper-emotional response to things. I have a number of Arab friends, and that’s how they are. It’s not a Muslim thing per se, but a cultural Arab behaviour. It’s the opposite of the British stiff upper lip. When this emotional nature is directed in a good way, it’s very endearing. They WILL welcome you into your home and give you the shirt off their back if they see you as a friend and comrade.
On the other han when it’s directed in a bad way, it’s a problem (like massacring people in a suicide bomb).
But it’s their culture to react this way.
2) There are so many people in the world who still see America as the shining example of opportunity and freedom. I’m proudly one of them. Sure America is imperfect. Sure the last generation has degraded the legacy of their ancestors. But what Western or non-Western country can compare even now to the US in dynamism, freedom, and opportunity?
I wish we could just throw away the entire whiny boomer generation and their spoiled brat offspring (even though I would have to be included demographically speaking) and start again from about 1960…