Michael Yon writes a fascinating account of the British side of the Iraq war.

You oughtta read the whole thing, as with everything Yon writes. But I was struck by this bit here:

On both trips with the British, I made a point of asking British soldiers how they were treated back in the United Kingdom. They said they are mostly ignored; occasionally expressing a muted desire to get the treatment they imagine American soldiers get. British soldiers seem to imagine our soldiers get big parades and so forth, and hugs from strangers at the airport. And to be sure, many do, especially in Texas, they say.

American soldiers get care packages from people they do not even know, and those packages are morale boosters. American soldiers get cards from kindergartens from sea to sea, and the soldiers paste the cards all over the walls of their headquarters and hospitals. I don’t know what it is about those homemade cards, with their squiggly letters, stick figures and smiley-faced suns, but whenever I am in hospitals in Iraq, those cards from the kids greatly lift my spirits. I’ve seen the British get cards and packages like this, but nothing like the quantity, variety and frequency of what American soldiers get.

So here’s my question.

The Brits have covered our backs in war after war – both Gulf Wars, Bosnia, and so on. They are on the front line of the war on terror – London and Glasgow have both suffered attacks (albeit Glasga and the second London attempt were both “fails”).

I wonder – would groups like Soldiers’ Angels think about expanding their efforts to cover troops from some of our allies? I’d imagine some Brit or Canadian or German or Polish or Danish or Norwegian soldier would go home with a whole lot better view of America than they might already have with the help of a little American generosity.

Maybe that’s stretching the available resources too thin – all I know is what I hear from the local SA people.

Just wondering.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 4:03 am and is filed under War On Terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.