"Where Do We Get Young Men Like This?"

[rcecale]

"Where do they get young men like this?”
Martin Savidge of CNN, embedded with the 1st Marine battalion, was talking with 4 young Marines near his foxhole this morning live on CNN. He had been telling the story of how well the Marines had been looking out for and taking care of him since the war started. He went on to tell about the many hardships the Marines had endured since the war began and how they all look after one another.
He turned to the four and said he had cleared it with their commanders and they could use his video phone to call home.
The 19 year old Marine next to him asked Martin if he would allow his platoon sergeant to use his call to call his pregnant wife back home whom he had not been able to talk to in three months. A stunned Savidge who was visibly moved by the request shook his head and the young Marine ran off to get the sergeant.
Savidge recovered after a few seconds and turned back to the three young Marines still sitting with him and asked which one of them would like to call home first, the Marine closest to him responded without a moments hesitation “ Sir, if is all the same to you we would like to call the parents of a buddy of ours, Lance Cpl Brian Buesing of Cedar Key, Florida who was killed on 3-23-03 near Nasiriya to see how they are doing”.
At that Martin Savidge totally broke down and was unable to speak. All he could get out before signing off was “Where do they get young men like this?”.


Yeah, that's the American military for you...bunch of cold blooded, heartless, cruel, unthinking, yada, yada, yada....give me a break!

I am one American who is damn proud to be American, and even prouder of our military men and women. May God bless every one of them and hold them in the hollow of his hand.

Randy

[bell]

very good post
proud doesn't even begin to describe it......

[speeder]

Couldn't agree more about the character of U.S. Marines, Randy.

[pwd72s]

Me too, couldn't agree more...

[Pam B]

This story brought tears to my eyes....it is very touching and thank you for posting it..

Pam B.

[RickC]

Great post.

Somehow those who grew up in the long shadow of Vietnam got a negative image of the "Gung Ho" Marines. That Chinese phrase, first given to the Marines on Guadalcanal, means "Work Together." That is what they do in everything they do - work together like a family.

I tip my hat to our young warriors.

"Raiders, rally to me!"

[CamB]

Cool story (and I'm serious). And I do believe that the US Marines are doing an incredibly difficult job in very trying circumstances. Even more so, I really really hope they all come home safely (preferably without killing any more Iraqis).

But I'm sorry:

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/savidge.php

It doesn't mean it isn't a cool story, and I genuinely believe that it reflects the attitude of the guys over there.

[island911]

. . .as Cam vies for Iraqi Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al Sahhafs' job vacancy.

[CamB]

I tried my hardest to put it the nicest way possible!

I read somewhere that Info Minister is refered to as Comical Ali! I can just imagine a scenario where he stands on top of the hotel briefing journalists, and is shot by US forces on the ground.

As he bleeds "As you can just see, the mighty Iraqi warriors have been firing shots in the air celebrating their victories over the American invaders, who are no-where near the city of Baghdad. Victory is at hand!".

[island911]

Originally posted by CamB
I tried my hardest to put it the nicest way possible!
. . .

Well aren't you thoughtful. .. . picking apart a story which has the audacity to suggest a marine might yeild his phone time for anothers benifit. No doubt they are nothing but Evil lies by the infedels!

We are all so thankful to you Cam, for so nicely finding someones website to show us how wrong we all are.


Cam, someone trying to be nice would have:

1) left it alone.

2) said "there is a website that disputes this story as factual. . ."

*********

Cam, I'll try my hardest to put this the nicest way possible . . .

Today is your "eat crow" day!
Cheering Iraqis have let the world know they are happier with the US/UK/AU decision to act, than with the indecision of people like yourself.

[CamB]

Yeah, I actually thought before I typed. But why shoot the messenger?

I'm not doing anything I wouldn't normally do - I do this sort of thing to all the emails I'm usually sent asking for money for a girl with cancer in Ohio too.

I could have kept my mouth shut - I considered it. However, given it (probably - CNN denied it) isn't true, then why should the story be spread further?

Are warm fuzzies supposed to affect whether I post this? Island - remember the Cool Collar - the Snopes website has more evidence that the story is BS than anyone provided that the Cool Collar was BS.

(edit) If you think I am a manipulative cynic, assuming that the "report" from the CNN guy is fake, where did it come from? Whoever wrote it is truely cynical. (end edit)

"Today is your eat crow day".

Yeah, I've been thinking about that a lot too. So, it turns out that the Iraqi people are happy the Coalition ousted Saddam. I don't think I doubted that prior to the war, so no crow to eat there.

Potential WMDs found - also not a big surprise to me. I could argue that since Saddam didn't use WMD, then he didn't have any. Still no crow.

However,

- the US still ignored (and continues to treat with contempt) the UN, and IMO much of the world
- lotsa people died, unfortunately

These two (and the US ongoing, er, "relationship" with Iraq) are what I am worried about. Recent quote in the media (xtra.co.nz summarising Reuters):

Bush and Blair have promised the United Nations will have a "vital role" in Iraq's reconstruction but it would apparently be limited mostly to distributing humanitarian aid.

Powell dismissed German, Russian and French calls for a "central" U.N. role.

"I'm not quite sure what that means. They just say central and then they go on to their next meeting," Powell said.

I am actually pretty confident the US will do the right thing for the Iraqi people, but the tone of what has been said so far is still a bit scary.

Basically, the US is going to ask for UN endorsement of a US-back Iraq Interim Authority. There is a decent chance the UN will say no (it appears none of the other major players think it is a good idea).

So if they say no to endorsement - then what?

[emcon5]

Originally posted by CamB
So if they say no to endorsement - then what?

Keep in mind that the US/UK wish to help the Iraqi people establish a democratic state.

The UN has no vested interest in this, because many of them are not democracies. There are those that believe, (possibly rightly) that a democratic Iraq will destabalize the area, by encouraging Iraq's neighbor's (none of which are democracies) citizens to seek democratic reforms.

I really hope for the sake of the Iraqi people that the UN is not involved in their reconstruction.

After all, they did such a bang-up job in Kosovo.

Tom

[turbo6bar]

If Iraq is given the same opportunities as post-war Germany and Japan, it will rival most developed nations in this world. I know this is possible. Other countries HOPE the "new" Iraq has teething problems, but the fact is we get the job done. A consensus from the UN will mean compromise in Iraq.

jurgen

[BlueSkyJaunte]

France, Russia, and Germany want their piece of the pie in terms of hard cold CASH for providing aid. Corporations will receive massive contracts for rebuilding, and the Axis of Pu$$ies want it to be THEIR corporations that receive these contracts.

Do you really think that F-R-G should reap the benefits after the US, UK, and OZ sacrifice billions of $$ and hundreds of troops to blow away Saddam?

It's all about money, folks. For F-R-G it's ONLY about money. For the US-UK-OZ it's money, principles, and liberty.

[island911]

"All about money" . ..hmmm
Yeah, I see those other countries definetly want a chunk of cash out of Iraq, but they also like to have the middle-east countries kept down. . .. jurgen describes it well, "Other countries HOPE the "new" Iraq has teething problems. ."

Right now, the EU formation (and expansion) is in an effort to be a bigger future power. EU players such as France have little love for the middle east. France in particular would like to keep the middle east under their thumb . .. .Bush has the idea that Iraq has the resources to be a major player. The rest of the middle east see's this too. . .but they see a successful democratic Iraq as a huge threat to their immediate power base.

I expect to see all sorts of subversive attacts on the success of Iraq. There are so many powers that will gain by tearing down the Iraqis hope for a real future. UN control will be an orgy of subversive attacts against Iraqs future. . .as it has been in the past.

[pwd72s]

Let's face it. Cam could be spot on here. After all, doesn't Rush dub CNN as the "Clinton News Network"???? The story would have been more credible if had been a FOX network reporter...I mean,if it had been CNN, such a story wouldn't be given airtime..but I have to admit, I was sucked in..