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| Iraq |
| Why Soldiers Cry |
| 2007-08-15 |
| W.Thomas Smith,Jr. AL MANSOUR (Baghdad) — U.S. forces have launched a new offensive north of Baghdad in an attempt to crush insurgents who have recently fled Baqouba. A major bridge was attacked on the outskirts of the city (several killed). And some roundup raids, which I cannot get into, may be stepping off in the city center as we speak. . . . Along the op route, we stopped by the house of a poor Iraqi family with at least seven small kids — beautiful, smiling children (girls and boys, none more than 10-years-old) all wanting to hold my hand, and wear my sunglasses and helmet. Of course, I let them. One of them — a smiling boy of about eight— was sitting on the floor, naked, his lower body partially covered by a sheet. At first I noticed his little hand when he reached up for mine: His left index finger was gone and the dirty remaining nub was somewhat ragged looking. Flies were buzzing around it. But the boy was smiling and his eyes as bright as if he had just run into the house from some nearby playground. But there is no playground for this child: Not now, anyway. Weeks ago, the boy was with his mother, shopping for bread in an open-air market, when an IED exploded. In a instant, shrapnel ripped through both of his legs and his stomach. His index finger was blown off, and part of his genitals were torn away. His right femur was completely broken near the hip. And his entire right leg from his foot to his hip was badly (third degree) burned. Our soldiers discovered him — sick with infection — while they were patrolling the neighborhood, got him to one of our doctors, and have been following up and taking care of him since. Today, the mother — a tired-looking woman dressed in an all black abaya and headscarf — pulled back the sheet to show me the severity of her son's wounds. He's healing now, but there are still open wounds, and his entire right leg is black (only because the skin is dead). One of the Army's medical corpsmen assured me he would heal. But the bones — currently held together with metal rods — need to fuse together. The boy will probably walk again: I pray he will. His mother — afraid he won't heal — asked for reassurance from our corpsman through our Iraqi interpreter. None of us could understand what she was saying, but I knew exactly what she was trying to convey. She was crying, holding her fingers up to her quivering lips. Her eyes searching mine and others for the truth. The corpsman, trying to reassure her, was also tearing up. I had to walk outside so no one would see my own tears. I couldn't help it. Then two of the little girls came up to me and took my hand. They were looking up and me and smiling. This may all sound mawkishly sweet, but I don't care. This is what happened today. This is reality on the ground in an impoverished and dangerous area of Baghdad, where the "mujh" still operates. This is where 70 percent of the houses and buildings are unoccupied (providing the terrorists a network of safe houses and sniper positions from which they can — and do — operate). This is where bound, blindfolded, and summarily executed bodies are still turning up. This is where IEDs and small arms are still killing and wounding Americans. This is where Iraqi children live, try to play, and have been deliberately targeted by terrorists. When we left the house, a captain told me that all the soldiers wept when they saw the torn and burned boy for the first time. Today, they were all smiles and playing around with the other children because they know the little boy is healing. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #7 I think it was VDH (perhaps quoting or reflecting Stephen Ambrose?) who pointed out that, especially during and since WW2, American troops are almost unique in history as the only ones children approach openly and gladly. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2007-08-15 18:03 |
| #6 Grrr. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-08-15 15:34 |
| #5 Because we do not chant and cheer at the sight of burnt bodies hung from a bridge. |
| Posted by: Steven 2007-08-15 14:37 |
| #4 It certainly runs counter to The New Republic's line that soldiers are all deadened killbots. Good for them for showing us this side. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2007-08-15 13:55 |
| #3 Yes, the little boy, his mother, and the kindness of our troops makes tear up back home. It also makes one curse a damnable uncaring enemy who plants IEDs and justifies them in the name of Allah or his screwed-up cause. The Islamofascists have gotten a pass in our media and in Hollywood. Although, the MSM and the Hollywood elites enjoy the benefits of a free society, they are mute on the good things their country-particularly the military is doing for others. And when they are not going through rehab, they take every opportunity to bash Bush or the U.S.A. or our efforts in Afghanistan or Iraq. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-08-15 11:12 |
| #2 This sort of thing also tends to make troops moody towards a vicious enemy. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-08-15 09:37 |
| #1 I'm speechless. While I love that American soldiers are the best in the world at kicking arse and takin' names, it means as much (or more) that they show their human side too. It's the little events, like this one, that are winning "hearts and minds" over there. A mother will never forget this event and the soldiers and doctors that worked to save her son, especially if he does completely heal and walks again. Little by little, also, the evil that is Islamofascism is working to turn the civilians over there against the jihadis too. Sadly, of course, this will never be printed in the MSM to show the American populace that our troops are the best and brightest in the world at this sort of thing, and that they are not the ogres and brutes they're portrayed to be. |
| Posted by: BA 2007-08-15 08:37 |