The Greatest Jeneration - Here's how our troops usually treat Iraqis

May 11, 2004

Here's how our troops usually treat Iraqis

Marine Corps News> Civil Affairs Marines visit villages near Fallujah

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Marcos A. Figueroa, a hospital corpsman with Regimental Combat Team 1 and from Los Angeles, takes a moment to blow soap-bubbles for children in a village just outside Fallujah, Iraq, May 6. Figueroa joined the Marines of 3rd Civil Affairs Group as they assisted villagers outside Fallujah and began developments to enhance the rural area. The village is expected to have a two-kilometer paved road that will run through two villages and was given 50 tons of fertilizer for planting crops.

Children gather for a moment to show off their stuffed animals given to them by Marines and sailors of Regimental Combat Team 1 during a visit by the 3rd Civil Affairs Group detachment under RCT-1. The 3rd CAG began projects to enhance the rural area such as paving a two-kilometer road and providing 50 tons of fertilizer as the planting season nears for farmers.

Today's Marines (and soldiers from our other Armed Forces) do a whole lot more than just "kill bad guys and break things."
In fact, it looks as if they spend a good deal of their time deployed in Iraq doing humanitarian work and winning hearts and minds by helping out Iraqi farmers with their planting needs, building paved roads and making sure the children play and have toys.
While a few badly behaving soldiers are getting all the media attention and will soon be under the bar of military justice for their apparent abuse of Iraqi prisoners, stories like these about the Marines performing "random acts of kindness" even as the siege of Falluja was ongoing, are unjustly ignored.
We should certainly avoid tarring all of our troops with the brush of the alleged humiliaters in Abu Ghraib prison.
I am proud and grateful to our troops (the other 99% of them) for representing all that is good and fine about America to the Iraqi people and I hope and pray that the majority of Iraqis (and Americans) know that there are far, far more good and decent GIs than there are bad.