Daily a morose league of Dem experts-of-nothing, naysaysers, garment-renderers and gloom-spreaders parade across our Tv screens and newspapers, spreading their message of failure and American culpability. To these political operatives and office seekers, the Iraqi people are of minor relevance or importance, much like the Bosnians, Kosovar or Serbs, in their goal of obtaining power and privilage.
While the MSM media obssesses over death and destruction, they fail to see, or worse ignore, the blossoming of new life and hope spreading across the countryside. We are winning hearts and minds, not those in Fallujah, Paris, Bonn, or the elite control booths and salons of America, but in the next generation of Iraqis. Where. it. matters.
Iraqi Children take the 24th MEU Back to SchoolFORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq (Oct. 16, 2004) -- Laughter and smiles filled a local school playground as Marines and sailors of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit presented children with various educational provisions during a visit to an elementary school in south-central Iraq. The visit was the latest in the MEU's ongoing Back to School Campaign.
The event provided the children with water, stickers, balloons, sports equipment, and backpacks filled with school supplies, such as notebooks and crayons.
The 24th MEU is working with some 40 schools in Northern Babil Province. The MEU's Marines and sailors are making basic repairs and providing thousands of students with equipment and supplies that will facilitate a prosperous new year of learning.
While major reconstruction efforts in Iraq are planned, the MEU is looking to make a more immediate impact within the community and the lives of the Iraqi children.
1st Lt. Vanessa Engel of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit plays pat-a-cake with an Iraqi schoolgirl during an Oct. 16th visit to an elementary school in south-central Iraq. The visit was the latest in the MEU’s ongoing Back to School campaign, a key feature of which provides local Iraqi schoolchildren with water, stickers, balloons, sports equipment, and backpacks full of educational supplies.
While I realize Iraq is a dangerous place for American journalists, perhaps they could Google from the security of their hotel suites to see what is happening on the ground outside the Green Zone, where Americans, such as Lt. Engel walk-the-walk risking their lives to make an Iraqi child's better. But that might not coincide with their litany of mistakes, predictions of civil war and chaos, or dreams of anchor chairs/editor desks, and we wouldn't want good news spread around back at home, now would we?
Posted by feste at October 23, 2004 11:16 AM | TrackBack