Making Something from Nothing
Dear readers,
I know that many of you are involved in the American political debacle that is ELECTION 2004, and several of you are hinging your vote on the current situation in Iraq. Regardless of my political beliefs, voter's registration, or opinion on "weapons of mass destruction"--or lack thereof--I firmly believe that as Americans we should support our troops in any way, shape, or form. Remember; most ROTC, Reserve units, and infantry signed up for the military in a time of peace, wanting only to serve their country in the only way they knew how. Unfortunately, that time of peace and grace was shattered by the tragedy of September 11, 2001.
As a young twenty-something, several of my friends are currently employed in military positions, and my family is steeped in military tradition, via the United States Marine Corps. My good friend, Bill, is an Army Ranger and was recently deployed to Iraq to provide relief to villages pillaged and terrorized by insurgents. I know that foreign countries see the Iraqi/American situation in a different light than most Americans, but remember; we only know what the media spoon feeds us. Today, Bill sent an email out to those of us who like to keep tabs on him by praying regularly for his safe return home. The following email is unedited, except for the address near the end:
"Dear Friends and supports,
First, let me say thank you for all you support while I am here in Iraq. It really means a lot to me. The conditions here are not all that desirable, but we live like kings compared to the Iraqi people.
It is really heartbreaking to see so many children without schools or decent living conditions. We go on these missions to clear sectors of weapons and munitions caches and other anti-coalition equipment and men and we see something completely different than just the enemy trying to hide his weapons from us. We see people living very poor lives by our standards. Children cannot go to school because the insurgents have taken them over. Children are forced to live in fear of the terrorist because if the grown ups of the village talk to us, the insurgents come in at night and shoot one just to make an example. We get very little information from the elders, where we are making our money is through the children. They see us and their faces just light up. They are the future of Iraq and right now, we are setting a foundation that will help out our relation in a few years when these kids become the leaders of the country. They will look back and think to themselves about how the Americans helped them. Some of the ways we are doing this is by providing them with clean drinking water and electricity. Just the simple things in life that we take for granted. They don’t even have beds or furniture. They live in these mud houses with no carpet and a few windows. They sleep on foam that they find on the ground and they use rusty string of barbed wire for their clothes lines.
Today, we walked into this house and there must have been about 10 kids there from the ages of 15 and down. The lady of the house said they did not have much, but we are required to search their house, so we did. As it turned out, all they had in their four room single story, mud brick house was a small stove and a pile of linen to sleep with. The other 3 rooms were completely empty. The kids had nothing, no toys, barely enough clothes, no pillows, nothing. Then one of my squad leaders pulled out 3 pens. You should have seen the look on the kid’s faces. They turned from frightened little kids into someone who had just won the $10 million lottery. They flocked to my squad leader and were reaching with their hands to get at a pen. A simple pen. Now, because my squad leader gave that little family a few cheap pens, we are looked at as great providers for that village. This is something that we are going to try to incorporate into all of our missions to try to help us in our mission to defeat the insurgents.
As you can imagine, it is pretty tough to get school supplies here through the PX. I don’t like to write emails like this and ask for school supplies or any other materials for that matter, but we would really appreciate it if you all could send us school supplies in the mail. Pens, paper, pencils, markers, clip boards, etc. You name it and send it, we can use it. Please pass this along to anyone that you think would like to help out. We are just trying to provide some hope for the future leaders of Iraq that just happen to be about 5 years old right now. Thanks for all your support, please mail the items to the address below:
[Edited]
Thank you so much,
Bill"
If you would like to send supplies, you may IM me at SnapesProdigy on AIM, or you may send an email to snapesofwrath@hotmail.com and I will supply you with Bill's platoon address in Iraq. Even if you just want to send a package of markers, used pens, a notebook, etc.--every little bit helps give these children a sense of joy and hope.
I know that many of you are involved in the American political debacle that is ELECTION 2004, and several of you are hinging your vote on the current situation in Iraq. Regardless of my political beliefs, voter's registration, or opinion on "weapons of mass destruction"--or lack thereof--I firmly believe that as Americans we should support our troops in any way, shape, or form. Remember; most ROTC, Reserve units, and infantry signed up for the military in a time of peace, wanting only to serve their country in the only way they knew how. Unfortunately, that time of peace and grace was shattered by the tragedy of September 11, 2001.
As a young twenty-something, several of my friends are currently employed in military positions, and my family is steeped in military tradition, via the United States Marine Corps. My good friend, Bill, is an Army Ranger and was recently deployed to Iraq to provide relief to villages pillaged and terrorized by insurgents. I know that foreign countries see the Iraqi/American situation in a different light than most Americans, but remember; we only know what the media spoon feeds us. Today, Bill sent an email out to those of us who like to keep tabs on him by praying regularly for his safe return home. The following email is unedited, except for the address near the end:
"Dear Friends and supports,
First, let me say thank you for all you support while I am here in Iraq. It really means a lot to me. The conditions here are not all that desirable, but we live like kings compared to the Iraqi people.
It is really heartbreaking to see so many children without schools or decent living conditions. We go on these missions to clear sectors of weapons and munitions caches and other anti-coalition equipment and men and we see something completely different than just the enemy trying to hide his weapons from us. We see people living very poor lives by our standards. Children cannot go to school because the insurgents have taken them over. Children are forced to live in fear of the terrorist because if the grown ups of the village talk to us, the insurgents come in at night and shoot one just to make an example. We get very little information from the elders, where we are making our money is through the children. They see us and their faces just light up. They are the future of Iraq and right now, we are setting a foundation that will help out our relation in a few years when these kids become the leaders of the country. They will look back and think to themselves about how the Americans helped them. Some of the ways we are doing this is by providing them with clean drinking water and electricity. Just the simple things in life that we take for granted. They don’t even have beds or furniture. They live in these mud houses with no carpet and a few windows. They sleep on foam that they find on the ground and they use rusty string of barbed wire for their clothes lines.
Today, we walked into this house and there must have been about 10 kids there from the ages of 15 and down. The lady of the house said they did not have much, but we are required to search their house, so we did. As it turned out, all they had in their four room single story, mud brick house was a small stove and a pile of linen to sleep with. The other 3 rooms were completely empty. The kids had nothing, no toys, barely enough clothes, no pillows, nothing. Then one of my squad leaders pulled out 3 pens. You should have seen the look on the kid’s faces. They turned from frightened little kids into someone who had just won the $10 million lottery. They flocked to my squad leader and were reaching with their hands to get at a pen. A simple pen. Now, because my squad leader gave that little family a few cheap pens, we are looked at as great providers for that village. This is something that we are going to try to incorporate into all of our missions to try to help us in our mission to defeat the insurgents.
As you can imagine, it is pretty tough to get school supplies here through the PX. I don’t like to write emails like this and ask for school supplies or any other materials for that matter, but we would really appreciate it if you all could send us school supplies in the mail. Pens, paper, pencils, markers, clip boards, etc. You name it and send it, we can use it. Please pass this along to anyone that you think would like to help out. We are just trying to provide some hope for the future leaders of Iraq that just happen to be about 5 years old right now. Thanks for all your support, please mail the items to the address below:
[Edited]
Thank you so much,
Bill"
If you would like to send supplies, you may IM me at SnapesProdigy on AIM, or you may send an email to snapesofwrath@hotmail.com and I will supply you with Bill's platoon address in Iraq. Even if you just want to send a package of markers, used pens, a notebook, etc.--every little bit helps give these children a sense of joy and hope.