Boy bonds with troops at Baghdad checkpoint By Nancy Montgomery BAGHDAD — For the past year, the center of one boy’s universe has been a dusty, razor-wired military checkpoint in Baghdad. He’s there every day, sprawled atop a concrete barrier, subsisting on endless cans of Pepsi and talking to nearly everyone in his best soul brother accent. When he finally gets tired, usually after midnight, he curls up inside a concrete cubbyhole where he keeps a blanket, near a parked Bradley. “He slept here last night,” said Pfc. Brandon Osborne, of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division. “He goes four or five days without going home at all.” He said his name is Sayf. He’s 10 years old, he said, as he jammed his skinny frame tightly against Osborne’s side. Sayf (pronounced “safe”) has attached himself to every U.S. military unit that has manned a checkpoint to the Palestine/Sheraton hotel complex, beginning with the Marines last spring. “When America came to Iraq,” Sayf said, “I came here.” Small, scruffy and appealing, Sayf doesn’t go to school or play with other children. He hangs out with soldiers. “Good guys,” he said. “They help me.” As for the soldiers, they don’t just put up with Sayf; they miss him when he’s gone. He’s made himself useful, translating and running small errands, even advising on checkpoint etiquette. “He’s been here so long, he knows more of the procedures than we do,” said Sgt. Freddie Lewis. There’s also undeniable affection between the soldiers and Sayf. “Last night we were coming back from patrol and he came running down the street, high-fiving us,” said Spc. Kyron Regis. He can’t read or write, but Sayf has learned simple English quickly. He said he went to school once but was expelled for fighting.
Great story, but I have a sad feeling some sick fuker is going to see this and try to do something to this kid.
That's why they love the kid. He's not bugging them about that bright new fvcking school Bush promised to build for him.
Reserve grunts adopt Iraqi villages, schools CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq(April 30, 2004) -- A change of pace from their duties of providing camp security here, members of a Marine reserve infantry battalion let their guard down and lent a hand to residents of a nearby Iraqi fishing village April 22, 2004. Marines of Third Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, currently assigned to the 1st Force Service Support Group, delivered shoes and school supplies to children and also gave rudimentary medical check-ups to the villagers. The St. Louis-based unit has made several such visits to the small village, and others like it, where they work with locals in an effort to improve their communities and their lives. During previous visits the reservists have coordinated construction efforts, delivered food and water, and even worked to renovate the fishing village's school, said Capt. James Suh, the battalion's logistics officer, who is in charge of planning the visits to the villages. There is still some work left to be done on the school, but battalion commanding officer, Lt. Col. Milton L. Wick, said that he expects the battalion to complete renovations by the fall. "We need to get the school schedule up and running ... to have classes in session, and those kids getting an education," said Wick, a 42-year-old native of Winfield, Kan.
awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww thankyou for pointing out that not all of our troops are monsters... like we needed to know that.
Obviously someone has to say this, so it might as well be me. I don't give a crap about Iraqi schools. I don't care how many soccer balls we've sent over. I don't care how pretty their new flag is. It wasn't worth $87 billion, it wasn't worth 700 soldiers' lives, it wasn't worth a bunch of white-collar criminals disgracing the entire nation by allowing a bunch of redneck white trash "Cops" rejects do their Robert Mapplethorpe imitation, and I'm going to go way out on a limb and guess that the Iraqis themselves aren't sporting big hard-ons about all the schools we're going to build. Unless Colonel Wick's schoolkids find a cure for cancer, invent a car that runs on daydreams and win the BCS, I don't give a crap about him, or his Gabe Kotter imitation, either. And not that I'm unusually cynical, but either Sayf is the biggest collaborator since Marshal Petain, or he's being groomed to wear Semtex Underoos. "Aw, isn't he cute" BLAMMO.
If changing the despotic Arab region isn't worth 87 billion in this day and age, i don't know what is.
We'd be better served by investing that $87 billion in education so future generations of Americans can be taught to think less simplistically than this.
And 700 US soldiers' lives as well? What you're ignoring, Manny, is that there's also the possibility that we might just have created the conditions that lead to a worse despot than Saddam Hussein, especially since the Bush Administration seems to have thought this out about as well as a 14-year-old who drops out of school and gets pregnant. Hey, I could find a whole lot smarter ways to use that $87 billion -- even if you want to use it to promote democracy around the world.
Damn, I thought the title was a typo, and that Ian meant to say "Boy Bands With Troops", and that N'Sync and the Backstreet Boys were being sent to Baghdad. His actual post is crap news in comparison.
First, that $87B was just the 2nd bill. The first pushes the total near $150B, and there are many more to come. Second...um, manny, I had high hopes for you, kid. We ain't changin' nothin. Turkey hasn't been a democracy for a long time, and has affected its neighbors. Iran has been one of the more democratic nations in the Muslim world, and has had no effect. And any rational analysis of the M.E. situation today can come to only one conclusion, namely, that US influence and prestige has dramatically declined in the last 18 months. This whole notion of a reverse domino effect is crazy on a few levels. One is, there's history to learn, and it isn't favorable to the idea. Another is, it's just crazy.
I saw the same thing. Actually, all boy bands should have to serve on the front lines of any American wars as compensation to those of us who have had to put up with their sissy crap. Well, them or their managers... Do you think we could send the next American Idol over there??? Please!!!
Why should a little story about a kid who is friendly with some of the troops have any real impact while the US is dealing with the huge controversy of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners??? Is it supposed to make us feel better? Is it supposed to convince the Arab world that we mean well because even though we can't be trusted to humanely care for prisoners of war, we can be buddy-buddy with some Iraqi street kid? It's nice and all, but this is not news. We know the majority of our soldiers are good, well-meaning people.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1209555,00.html http://lj.georgerickle.com/107588.html (see the picture) Of course, doubts exist over whether it was real or photoshopped, but its not like the muslim world hasn't learned anything from Fox News... http://paknews.com/headingNews.php?id=2634&date1=2004-04-14