An American Officer's Tale of a Inspirational Iraqi Graduation

If there is going to be anything you read Iraq today be sure to read this. Armed and Curious is a 42 year old career Army officer on his fourth combat tour of IRAQ. His blog is compelling reading and he is overwhelmed on how things have changed. Needless to say perhaps his experience is something to listen too. You did not see this dramatic event on the evening news here the USA, but a whole bunch of Iraq Officers graduated. These are good men. How good. Read his entry Finding Inspiration in Tears of Joy as he describes the event that you see pictured above. He ends his stellar entry by saying:

We all just sort of stood there and soaked up the energy and passion. This is where Iraq is today.

These families, rich and poor, Sunni and Shia, young and old were overcome with pride for their sons becoming officers of the new Iraq.

It wasn’t because they would be getting a regular pay check. Not because there is nothing else to do. These men have committed themselves to building a new democratic Iraq and the sheer joy and pride of their families tells even the most jaded observer, including a couple of veteran western journalists in my group, that something has shifted here that can’t be ignored.

You could not stand on that hot gymnasium floor covered with crushed candy and dancing Iraqis and not be inspired.
I haven’t shaken the chill up my spine even today.

General Petraeus was there but sadly the major network media was not.

We forget that the Iraqis are our allies and they are on the front war of terror themselves. We forget or perhaps did not take notice of that the second worst terrorist attacks in history (9/11 being the worst) was performed by al-Qaeda in Iraq. The man on the left in the picture is now dead. He worked for , for Armed and Dangerous and was his friend, and he worked and lived for a free Iraq. He was beheaded by Al-Qaedia. GO see his entry Death Threats and Bad Memories . That man's name was Bassam Sabry . As we get nearer to victory in Iraq he needs to be honored too.

We see the Iraqi Army is changing and is coming into own. Armed talks about this here at Getting Schooled where he talks about how taken to the back of the wood shed by an Iraqi general in a situation that he found sad but also in many ways hopeful.

I pray that Obama sees some of this and digest it when goes to Iraq next week