"We Played Soccer With Their Children"

Today I received a letter from a dear friend, Jordan Moehnle. As most of you know, he is a 19 year-old United States Marine fighting terrorists-('insurgents' is far too polite a moniker)-in Fallujah, Iraq. He is not some p.o.g. pushing paper. He is on the streets pushing Hajji.

I asked him in a recent letter if the Iraqis hate us and want us to leave, since the media drumbeat never ceases.

His response, verbatim:

"To answer your questions, we're on the southern half (Fallujah) just outside the city across from the Euphrates river. No, the Iraqis don't hate us, as a matter of fact on our last patrol we stopped at two different house-holds where the families insisted we stay and have some tea, so we took turns posting security on the corners and going inside where we drank chi tea and played soccer with their children (I found this to be quite difficult in full combat gear and ended up falling on my face seceral times, much to the comic delight of the kids). so good times. As far as terrorism goes, these people are very uneducated and I don't know if they can learn a different lifestyle after all this time. But it's become clear to us that these people are learning that the U.S. is not the bad guy and their frustration is being redirected towards the insurgents"

Then there's this (paraphrased from his mother):

" They (Marines)are frequently required to commandeer houses as they have to have a place to sleep and operate from. Recently, they took over a sheikh’s house and he was not there but all his daughters were. There was some stir in that the daughters were apparently smitten with this houseful of Marines and proposals were profuse. An international incident was averted when the house was cleared for Marines only. Also, as a mom, I was relieved to hear that they usually leave homes cleaner and in better shape than when they arrived."

WE ARE the good guy. We've ALWAYS been the good guy. And while our methods have been ham-fisted or downright wrong at times, American intent, in the form of thousands of decent human beings like Lance Corporal Moehnle have never been in doubt.

Yet only today as I write this, Abu Ghraib is once again demanding our repentance.
I refuse to feel the slightest remorse for bored rear-area soldiers playing idiotic frat-boy pranks on people in a lawless environment. Those soldiers have been punished--military justice being notoriously swift and severe.

So when some fool sneers that the 'war is for oil', and 'the Iraqis despise us', ask them how it could be that our Marines can play soccer, drink tea, and entertain arabic females in their own homes when we're hated. The left needs the world to hate us, otherwise there is no interest in their headlines.

To bad success doesn't sell here.

But it does sell in Iraq.