A soldier in Iraq wrote a letter to his family which got circulated until it was picked up and run by Time magazine. It’s worth reading if you have a few minutes and are interested in a from-the-ground perspective. Here are a few sections:
Most Profound Man in Iraq — an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied “Yes, you.”
Biggest Outrage — Practically anything said by talking heads on TV about the war in Iraq, not that I get to watch much TV. Their thoughts are consistently both grossly simplistic and politically slanted. Biggest Offender: Bill O’Reilly.
Best Chuck Norris Moment — 13 May. Bad Guys arrived at the government center in a small town to kidnap the mayor, since they have a problem with any form of government that does not include regular beheadings and women wearing burqahs. There were seven of them. As they brought the mayor out to put him in a pick-up truck to take him off to be beheaded (on video, as usual), one of the Bad Guys put down his machine gun so that he could tie the mayor’s hands. The mayor took the opportunity to pick up the machine gun and drill five of the Bad Guys. The other two ran away. One of the dead Bad Guys was on our top twenty wanted list. Like they say, you can’t fight City Hall.
Proudest Moment — It’s a tie every day, watching our Marines produce phenomenal intelligence products that go pretty far in teasing apart Bad Guy operations in al-Anbar. Every night Marines and Soldiers are kicking in doors and grabbing Bad Guys based on intelligence developed by our guys. We rarely lose a Marine during these raids, they are so well-informed of the objective. A bunch of kids right out of high school shouldn’t be able to work so well, but they do.
Great letter. Very insightful. Thanks for sharing.
Fantastic.
thanx
Thank you for that Todd. My 21 year old brother just told me (after not speaking to me for almost a year and a half) that he wants to join the Marines and is currently “in training” to get there in 6 mos.-1 year. He’s not a believer.
This letter is a reminder to me that no matter what is happening in the world, our God is in control. I’m sure it’ll be hard if/when my brother actually does join the Marines, but I pray that the Lord uses it to show my brother his need for Christ. Again, thanks for your thought-provoking posts.