GoArmy.com
Michael Yon in the Wall Street Journal:
As the outrages of Abu Ghraib faded in memory – and paled in comparison to al Qaeda’s brutalities – and our soldiers under the Petraeus strategy got off their big bases and out of their tanks and deeper into the neighborhoods, American values began to win the war.
Iraqis came to respect American soldiers as warriors who would protect them from terror gangs. But Iraqis also discovered that these great warriors are even happier helping rebuild a clinic, school or a neighborhood. They learned that the American soldier is not only the most dangerous enemy in the world, but one of the best friends a neighborhood can have.
Yon also adds this:
The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers. Yes, young Iraqi boys know about “GoArmy.com.”
They’re not just dreaming it. I’ve met some who already are American Soldiers.
BTW, Michael Yon has just released Moment of Truth in Iraq about his experiences as an embedded journalist there. Order it here.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:32 am
[…] Bob Krumm (who is currently at Fort Benning getting ready to head for Iraq […]
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:43 pm
i want to go army
March 1st, 2009 at 8:19 am
In WWII, and during the Cold War, it was not unusual to have young refugees, or children of recent immigrants to the US, enlist in the military, often they’d seen first-hand the positve work US servicemembers could do, or indirectly benefitted from it. Maybe they just believed that the US offered a way of life and liberty, and they felt they should be a part of protecting it.
Even today I’ve served with Soldiers whose parents fled Eastern Europe under the Soviets, Iran under the Ayatollah, Iraq under Saddam, as well as places like Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, and Haiti. It strikes me that these folks risked all, losing all their property, risking their very lives, then enlist to serve their new country. If service gives them a fast track to citizenship, all the better, these are the citizens that will feel they have a stake in the country, and will likely work to keep it’s principles and freedoms from being diminished long after they hang up the uniform.