Making a difference in Iraq

[Trish]

So often we see the men and women of our military portrayed as monsters - rapists, murderers, etc. And yes, there are a few of those unfortunately in our military. All too often, however, the just basic decent human beings that comprise the overwhelming majority of our military are overlooked - or are ignored. Sgt. Falcon is one such decent human being wearing the uniform of our military. Despite his own doubts, his own confusion, he took the time and made extraordinary efforts to make a difference in the life of a child. Sgt. Falcon made a difference in Iraq. I can't help but wonder how many others make a difference every day there - one unselfish, unreported, act of kindness and caring at a time.






May 9, 2008, 11:44PM
U.S. soldier makes helping legless Iraqi girl his mission

By LEILA FADEL
McClatchy-Tribune









B AGHDAD — Staff Sgt. Luis Falcon, 38, was patrolling the streets of Baqouba, north of Baghdad, when he saw Shahad Abbas.
The 11-year-old girl was in a large decrepit wheelchair, and the stumps of her legs where her calves should have been were crusted with dried blood.
Falcon couldn't just walk on, so he stopped to talk.
He came back the next day and the day after that, then every day for six months, bringing her toys, gauze for her legs, a new wheelchair.
Anything she asked for, he would bring.
In a war that Falcon no longer really understood, Shahad became his mission. So when she asked for legs, that became his mission, too.
On Friday his dream and hers came true, just three weeks before he's scheduled to leave Iraq. Shahad was fitted with prosthetic limbs in a U.S. military-funded clinic in Baghdad that normally provides artificial limbs for wounded members of the Iraqi security forces.
"We created a bond, and I didn't need a translator to interpret the bond we had," Falcon said.

Surrogate daughter

With no little girls of his own, he thought of Shahad as his daughter and carried a picture of her in his uniform. Iraq has one of the largest populations of amputees in the world, though a precise count isn't available. There are the tens of thousands of people who lost their limbs in the 1980s, during the eight-year war with Iran. Thousands more were injured in the first Gulf War. And then there's the current conflict, which has cost many people their legs and arms in bomb blasts.
Shahad lost her legs as she was walking to school when a roadside bomb exploded nearby. Two pieces of shrapnel are still lodged in her back to remind her of that day. Her little brother, Ali, was killed.
One day, Falcon, a New Yorker from 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, asked her what she wanted. He expected her to ask for a toy. "I'll get you anything you want," he recalled saying.
"I want legs so I can walk to school," she told him. One day she planned to be a doctor. School was important to her.
It was a daunting request. The family was too poor to pay for expensive prostheses. The travel alone to a clinic would be too expensive. Her father is unemployed and ill.
So Falcon, who acknowledges he wasn't sure about the Iraq war, wasn't sure he was making a difference, decided he would get Shahad her legs.
He went to his commander, to his chaplain, to anyone who would listen. The quest was frustrating and took months of pleas. He threatened to walk away from the Army if he couldn't give Shahad legs.
"Sometimes I couldn't figure out what made sense about being here. ... Are we making a difference, are we not?" he said. "But I looked at her, right there, and it all made sense."
In one plea for Shahad's legs, he wrote: "Since I have been in Iraq, seeing her has given me every reason I need to justify our presence here. If nothing made sense, Shahad did."
Eventually, he won permission for Shahad to be treated at the clinic, founded by Chris Cummings, a prosthetist from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Cummings said the clinic has fitted 500 people with artificial limbs since its founding.
Some, he said, were civilians, like Shahad.
He recalled a pair of sisters in their 20s who worried that without limbs they'd never marry.

Big day arrives

On Friday, Shahad arrived at the clinic to get her legs. She wore a pretty blue denim dress and dangling earrings, and her mother and uncle wheeled her into the clinic. By Friday afternoon she was taking her first steps. At first she was a little scared.
Falcon called out, "Sasha, come give me a hug." With a sloppy grin on her face, she took several shaky steps into his arms.
"She was looking at my legs, and I was looking at her legs," he said. "Thank God."
Falcon doesn't see his mission as completed.
He pulled the picture of him and Shahad from his pocket and looked at it with concern.
In three weeks, he'll be gone. Who will check on her? Who will bring her medical supplies and call in favors to help her?
"I don't care how long it takes," he said. "I'll come back and find her."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5768908.html

[jafar00]

Right on! May God protect Luis for his simple act of kindness.

[AlanC]

And may Shadad grow to live a long and happy life.

[apdst]

I can't help but wonder how many others make a difference every day there - one unselfish, unreported, act of kindness and caring at a time.

Hundreds a day, I'm sure.

No doubt those unreported activities in no way out weigh one single screw up, however.

It just goes to show how the Liberal media is out to defeat our military.

[Elrathin]

It just goes to show how the Liberal media is out to defeat our military.

Funny, I don't remember seeing Fox News posting this story, I wonder why?

[Trish]

Funny, I don't remember seeing Fox News posting this story, I wonder why?

Just curious - did you see it posted on any other major news outlet?

[Elrathin]

Just curious - did you see it posted on any other major news outlet?

Well since apdst call of the LIBERAL media is wanting to defeat the military I am wondering why the beacon of conservatism and "Fair and Balanced"
, "Fox News" didn't carry it either. Does that mean that Fox News wants to defeat our military as well?

[apdst]

Well since apdst call of the LIBERAL media is wanting to defeat the military I am wondering why the beacon of conservatism and "Fair and Balanced"
, "Fox News" didn't carry it either. Does that mean that Fox News wants to defeat our military as well?

Fox is a guilty of not running these kinds of stories as the rest are. However, Libbos the likes of Walter Kronkite, Keith Oberman and Dan Rather do not work for Fox News. That, by itself, puts Fox far ahead of the rest.

[Elrathin]

Fox is a guilty of not running these kinds of stories as the rest are. However, Libbos the likes of Walter Kronkite, Keith Oberman and Dan Rather do not work for Fox News. That, by itself, puts Fox far ahead of the rest.

How is Fox above the rest for not reporting this? I mean of all the stories, Fox if they are TRULY Fair and Balanced would have, they didn't. So that means Fox News is just like ALL THE OTHER MEDIA.

[PatrickHenry]

I wonder how many roadside bombings were taking off children's legs when Saddam ran the show?

See, this little girl wouldn't need prosthetics if she still had some legs made of flesh and bone.

Of course Sgt. Falcon's tender heart is laudable. He's doing a good thing to help a kid.

But so many changes have happened to Iraq that are bad...Of the 1 million of my Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq, only a half million are left and they are in fear for their lives. The rest have been murdered or have fled the country.

Under Saddam, their lives were manageable. Now, in the Islamic Republic of Iraq, instated by the USA, they are targets.

So now matter how many deeds of kindness US troops do in Iraq, they are the tools of something that is profoundly evil...US policy.

[apdst]

I wonder how many roadside bombings were taking off children's legs when Saddam ran the show?

Children were raped and tortured when Saddam ran the show.

[jafar00]

There was much less torture and death when Saddam ran the show. As long as you kept your head down and lived your life according to the laws of Iraq at the time, you had nothing to fear.

[apdst]

There was much less torture and death when Saddam ran the show. As long as you kept your head down and lived your life according to the laws of Iraq at the time, you had nothing to fear.

The death toll, alone, during Saddam's reign is approximately 300,000 people. I'm astounded at your response, I trully am. I think it speaks volumes.

[Trish]

There was much less torture and death when Saddam ran the show. As long as you kept your head down and lived your life according to the laws of Iraq at the time, you had nothing to fear.

Oh really? I think perhaps Iraqi women and athletes might disagree with you. Saddam's son's were particularly unpleasant dealing with their fellow citizens. Athletes tortured for not doing well - women, even young school girls, snatched off the streets and out of schools to be raped at the will of Saddam's psychopathic sons. Uday was particularly barbaric as I understand it.

Of course, perhaps Iraq had a law that all women must submit themselves for the Hussein boy's sexual pleasure and athletes must do exceptionally well at all times. In that case, I suppose failure to "obey" the law justified the rape and mutliations meted out.

And I suppose all those mass graves with the hundreds of bodies that have been uncovered were all criminals - especially the children. Yep....they should have kept their heads down!

[Drocket]

The death toll, alone, during Saddam's reign is approximately 300,000 people.
If we take your number as correct, and ignore the fact that the vast majority of them occured during the time when he was our very dear friend: That's over 24 years, a toll of approximately 12.5K/year. The number killed because of our invasion of Iraq is *VERY* conservatively 100,000, which is 20k/year. Realistically the number killed is more like 500k, and possibly up to a million.

I'm astounded at your response, I trully am. I think it speaks volumes.
About his capability to do math?

[apdst]

Sounds to me like you're excusing Saddam, Drocket.

There were six million Jews killed during The Holocaust. There were 1.6 million Germans killed in allied daylight bombing raids. Should we not have gone to war with Germany?

There's a difference in going out standing up and going out on your knees.

Don't foget to chalk up some of those Iraqis from your outrageous number to Baathist terrorists, foreign insurgents and AQ. In fact, you can probably score most of them for the terrorists.

The Iraqis were soooooooooooooooo pissed off that they were freed from under Saddam's boot, that 84% of them turned out, at high risk to their personal safety, to vote in the first Democratic election in the history of the country. Try getting an 84% turnout at American polls; and we don't have to worry about suicide bombers when we vote.

[apdst]

Anyway, no one gives a shit about Saddam...he's dead meat. Let's get back on mission and see how our service members feel about the quality of media reporting from the ITO.

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2004/05/letter_from_ira.html

An Email from Todd, airman first class, USAF.

Thank you very much for the supportive email. It is always Good to hear from the TRUE AMERICANS that still bleed red, white, and blue. The only thing that I get to see from the American people is what is portrayed on the news. The media, and the people that listen to what they say and believe it almost make me more pissed off than the Iraqis that are over here shooting at us. At least when the Iraqis are shooting towards us, it is to our face, instead of like the traitors that call themselves Americans who stab us in the back.
I know that we are doing the right thing over here because I get to see it first hand. We are near a concrete plant that is off base and run by Iraqis. I have actually had some of them come up to me begging me to take them back to America because they know how bad living in Iraq is. I get to talk to Iraqis everyday, and I explain to them that Iraq will one day be like America, and ask them not to try to leave here, but to stay and be part of the Iraqi people that made their country a better place.

I have never been anywhere else in the world that the people were so happy to see an American. The media never tells that side of the story. They never tell about how every week we risk our lives to take food, clothes, and toys to the Children's hospital in An Nasiriyah.

Something that never happened when Saddam was in power, something these people have never seen. Instead the news talks about a battle in Al Fallujah where we lost one marine, and that is the entire story that they tell. They make it sound like we lost that battle because we lost one marine, but they don't tell you that right after that marine got killed, they sent in a C-130 gunship and blasted every one of the insurgents away. Now who won the battle?

I could go on for days and it is probably stuff that you already know, I mean you spent enough time in the military to know that the media is crap. It is good to hear that you are not afraid to let your voice be heard, and I pray that there are many more like you out there.

As long as we have the true patriots out there that keep giving their support, we will prevail and Iraq will see freedom as we do.

Todd

[apdst]

I stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from my government for the purpose of taking the lives of others.

I sweat, and I am tired. My back aches from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a manner that will someday allow them to see their families again...and yet, I too, am just a boy....my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I lead. I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid...because death is everywhere. It waits for me, it calls to me from around street corners and windows, and it is always there.

There are the demons that follow me, and tempt me into thoughts and actions that are not my own...but that are necessary for survival. I've made compromises with my humanity. And I am not alone in this. Miles from me are my brethren in this world, who walk in the same streets...who feel the same things, whether they admit to it or not.

And to think, I volunteered for this...

And I am ignorant to the rest of the world...or so I thought.

But even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me. In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that doesn't fit your average man. And then, I will be alone. And then, I will walk down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of the same people who compare our President to Hitler.

I will watch the television and watch the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home. I use the word boys and girls, because that's what they are. In the Army, the average age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers killed in action is Private First Class.

People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant. Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at least I hope they are. They don't realize its effects on this war. In this war, there are no Geneva Conventions, no cease fires. Medics and Chaplains are not spared from the enemy's brutality because it's against the rules. I can only imagine the horrors a military Chaplain would experience at the hands of the enemy. The enemy slinks in the shadows and fights a coward’s war against us. It is effective though, as many men and women have died since the start of this war. And the memory of their service to America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation's news outlets. And every day, the enemy changes...only now, the enemy is becoming something new. The enemy is transitioning from the Muslim extremists to Americans. The enemy is becoming the very people whom we defend with our lives. And they do not realize it. But in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from society...and they are becoming our enemy.

Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word "quagmire" around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war.

Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet...and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed...for doing their job.

It is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this. Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we've done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It's all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush. They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that Bush was right.

America has lost its will to fight. It has lost its will to defend what is right and just in the world. The crazy thing of it all is that the American people have not even been asked to sacrifice a single thing. It’s not like World War II, where people rationed food and turned in cars to be made into metal for tanks. The American people have not been asked to sacrifice anything. Unless you are in the military or the family member of a servicemember, its life as usual...the war doesn't affect you.

But it affects us. And when it is over and the troops come home and they try to piece together what's left of them after their service...where will the detractors be then? Where will the Cindy Sheehans be to comfort and talk to soldiers and help them sort out the last couple years of their lives, most of which have been spent dodging death and wading through the deaths of their friends? They will be where they always are, somewhere far away, where the horrors of the world can't touch them. Somewhere where they can complain about things they will never experience in their lifetime; things that the young men and women of America have willingly taken upon their shoulders.

We are the hope of the Iraqi people. They want what everyone else wants in life: safety, security, somewhere to call home. They want a country that is safe to raise their children in. Not a place where their children will be abducted, raped and murdered if they do not comply with the terrorists demands. They want to live on, rebuild and prosper. And America has given them the opportunity, but only if we stay true to the cause and see it to its end. But the country must unite in this endeavor...we cannot place the burden on our military alone. We must all stand up and fight, whether in uniform or not. And supporting us is more than sticking yellow ribbon stickers on your cars. It's supporting our President, our troops and our cause.

Right now, the burden is all on the American soldiers. Right now, hope rides alone. But it can change, it must change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country, as a people, if it doesn't.

Let's stop all the political nonsense, let's stop all the bickering, let's stop all the bad news and let's stand and fight!
Isn't that what America is about anyway?

Sgt. Eddie Jeffers, United States Army, Infantry

[apdst]

I stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from my government for the purpose of taking the lives of others.

I sweat, and I am tired. My back aches from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a manner that will someday allow them to see their families again...and yet, I too, am just a boy....my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I lead. I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid...because death is everywhere. It waits for me, it calls to me from around street corners and windows, and it is always there.

There are the demons that follow me, and tempt me into thoughts and actions that are not my own...but that are necessary for survival. I've made compromises with my humanity. And I am not alone in this. Miles from me are my brethren in this world, who walk in the same streets...who feel the same things, whether they admit to it or not.

And to think, I volunteered for this...

And I am ignorant to the rest of the world...or so I thought.

But even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me. In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that doesn't fit your average man. And then, I will be alone. And then, I will walk down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of the same people who compare our President to Hitler.

I will watch the television and watch the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home. I use the word boys and girls, because that's what they are. In the Army, the average age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers killed in action is Private First Class.

People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant. Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at least I hope they are. They don't realize its effects on this war. In this war, there are no Geneva Conventions, no cease fires. Medics and Chaplains are not spared from the enemy's brutality because it's against the rules. I can only imagine the horrors a military Chaplain would experience at the hands of the enemy. The enemy slinks in the shadows and fights a coward’s war against us. It is effective though, as many men and women have died since the start of this war. And the memory of their service to America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation's news outlets. And every day, the enemy changes...only now, the enemy is becoming something new. The enemy is transitioning from the Muslim extremists to Americans. The enemy is becoming the very people whom we defend with our lives. And they do not realize it. But in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from society...and they are becoming our enemy.

Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word "quagmire" around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war.

Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet...and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed...for doing their job.

It is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this. Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we've done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It's all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush. They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that Bush was right.

America has lost its will to fight. It has lost its will to defend what is right and just in the world. The crazy thing of it all is that the American people have not even been asked to sacrifice a single thing. It’s not like World War II, where people rationed food and turned in cars to be made into metal for tanks. The American people have not been asked to sacrifice anything. Unless you are in the military or the family member of a servicemember, its life as usual...the war doesn't affect you.

But it affects us. And when it is over and the troops come home and they try to piece together what's left of them after their service...where will the detractors be then? Where will the Cindy Sheehans be to comfort and talk to soldiers and help them sort out the last couple years of their lives, most of which have been spent dodging death and wading through the deaths of their friends? They will be where they always are, somewhere far away, where the horrors of the world can't touch them. Somewhere where they can complain about things they will never experience in their lifetime; things that the young men and women of America have willingly taken upon their shoulders.

We are the hope of the Iraqi people. They want what everyone else wants in life: safety, security, somewhere to call home. They want a country that is safe to raise their children in. Not a place where their children will be abducted, raped and murdered if they do not comply with the terrorists demands. They want to live on, rebuild and prosper. And America has given them the opportunity, but only if we stay true to the cause and see it to its end. But the country must unite in this endeavor...we cannot place the burden on our military alone. We must all stand up and fight, whether in uniform or not. And supporting us is more than sticking yellow ribbon stickers on your cars. It's supporting our President, our troops and our cause.

Right now, the burden is all on the American soldiers. Right now, hope rides alone. But it can change, it must change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country, as a people, if it doesn't.

Let's stop all the political nonsense, let's stop all the bickering, let's stop all the bad news and let's stand and fight!
Isn't that what America is about anyway?

Sgt. Eddie Jeffers, United States Army, Infantry

[apdst]

Some our, "objective", media might want to check out federal law, before printing their smut rags for distribution:

18 USC Section 794, subsection b

(b) Whoever, in time of war, with intent that the same shall be communicated to the enemy, collects, records, publishes, or communicates, or attempts to elicit any information with respect to the movement, numbers, description, condition, or disposition of any of the Armed Forces, ships, aircraft, or war materials of the United States, or with respect to the plans or conduct, or supposed plans or conduct of any naval or military operations, or with respect to any works or measures undertaken for or connected with, or intended for the fortification or defense of any place, or any other information relating to the public defense, which might be useful to the enemy, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life.

[Drocket]

Anyway, no one gives a shit about Saddam..

You sure seem to, as you continue to use him to justify the invasion of Iraq. It seems that "no one gives a shit" about him only after its pointed out that things are basically a magnitude of order worse now than they were, and continue getting worse the longer we stay.

[PatrickHenry]

Some our, "objective", media might want to check out federal law, before printing their smut rags for distribution:

18 USC Section 794, subsection b

(b) Whoever, in time of war, with intent ...
Is this a time of war?

If so, where is the declaration?

Or is war whatever a President says it is and the cited Law can be imposed at really any time?

Tyranny stalks America...and its locus is Washington.

[apdst]

a magnitude of order worse now than they were, and continue getting worse the longer we stay.

That's simply not true.

Is this a time of war?

Uh, let me thing, bullets are flying and people are getting hurt...yeah, I'd say this is a time of war. We're involved in to congressionally authorized theaters of operation.

[jafar00]

a magnitude of order worse now than they were, and continue getting worse the longer we stay.
That's simply not true.

Lets see about that.

Before the US invaded Iraqis had amongst other things...

Clean Water
Sanitation and Sewerage
Good Hospital care
Food
Electricity 24 hours a day
Clean streets
Schools, Universities and other places of learning
Christians free to worship in Churches and participate in Society
Jews free to worship Synagogues and participate in Society
The ability to go to market without the risk of being blown up(except for CIA funded bombings done by Iyad Allawi and his INA)
Jobs
Programs for the poor to help them live with food and housing subsidies
Little or no sectarian violence

What do they have now? None of the above.

[apdst]

Clean Water
Sanitation and Sewerage
Good Hospital care
Food
Electricity 24 hours a day
Clean streets
Schools, Universities and other places of learning
Christians free to worship in Churches and participate in Society
Jews free to worship Synagogues and participate in Society
The ability to go to market without the risk of being blown up(except for CIA funded bombings done by Iyad Allawi and his INA)
Jobs
Programs for the poor to help them live with food and housing subsidies
Little or no sectarian violence

You can lay that at the doorstep of your terrorist padnahs.

But, ultimately, those things are improving. They improve everytime we put a few Islamofacists on ice.