It didn’t take long for people to note that Bin Laden was killed on the 66th anniversary of Hitler’s death.
Michael Yon has an even more poignant, and in hindsight more satisfying, anniversary. It was the sixth anniversary of the death of Farah, a little girl killed by a car bomb likely set off by an Al Quaeda sympathizer in pre-surge Iraq:
Major Mark Bieger found this little girl after the car bomb that attacked our guys while kids were crowding around. The soldiers here have been angry and sad for two days. They are angry because the terrorists could just as easily have waited a block or two and attacked the patrol away from the kids. Instead, the suicide bomber drove his car and hit the Stryker when about twenty children were jumping up and down and waving at the soldiers. Major Bieger, I had seen him help rescue some of our guys a week earlier during another big attack, took some of our soldiers and rushed this little girl to our hospital. He wanted her to have American surgeons and not to go to the Iraqi hospital. She didn’t make it. I snapped this picture when
Major Bieger ran to take her away. He kept stopping to talk with her and hug her.
The soldiers went back to that neighborhood the next day to ask what they could do. The people were very warm and welcomed us into their homes, and many kids were actually running up to say hello and to ask soldiers to shake hands.
It was perhaps the most iconic photo of the war; perhaps one of the most so of any war.
I hope his 72 virgins all have crabs.
This is what an American soldier does! They fight for the oppressed.
Yet, just like the last quagmire, the media never reports the good things, because, ya’ know, we’re all baby killers! That’s bigger news than the killing of cowardly thugs that convince women and kids to walk up to a group of soldiers with a satchel charge and detonate it.
I’ve had several veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq have shared their anger at the lame ass media teams that were embedded with their units. They rolled the cameras during firefights, but as soon as they brought school supplies to the kids, Engineers worked to rebuild schools that had bomb damage or engaged in other humanitarian efforts, the cameras were turned off.
They think that they’re tough because they are there with their cameras, but there is a huge difference; if things get really hot, they can leave.
They can be damn glad that I am not commanding a combat patrol over there, because I would tell me guys to leave the crew alone in Indian country for awhile to see if I could get their attention. Obviously, there may be a few exceptions, but so far, I haven’t seen any.
“I hope his 72 virgins have crabs.” Or look like Helen Thomas.