While driving home from work today, I heard a really inspirational story on NPR’s “All Things Considered” about a U.S. marine whose dying wish was to have two dogs he found in Baghdad transported to America for his family to care for. Long story short, his grieving family fought against all odds to realize his dream and in the end succeeded. Today, Mumma and Renold (I think that was their names) reside in a cookie cutter suburban town somewhere in the good ol’ U.S. of A.
Feel warm inside? Really, you don’t? Ok you heartless bastard, how about this…
Last Thursday, on Valentine’s Day, the SPCA International Baghdad Program (yes, there is such a thing) brought Charlie, a border collie mix, to the U.S after Watson, the active-duty soldier who found him in Iraq, couldn’t bare to give him up. According to Watson, “It’s probably going to be a real shock for him to see such beauty and great monuments after knowing nothing but the slums of Baghdad.” Charlie is currently on route from DC to Phoenix.
Isn’t that cute? I think so! Especially since this is what the doggies really want…
Just ask Nubbs. He currently lives in San Diego. An Iraqi by birth, he was transported to the U.S. after Major Brian Dennis rescued him in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. After finding Nubbs and nursing him back to health, Dennis was dispatched to a military outpost 70 miles away from where Nubbs resided. Nubbs, however, loved Dennis so much that he tracked him across the desert. Though Dennis couldn’t keep him, he was touched enough to arrange for the pup to be transported to the United States (via the “No Buddy Left Behind” initiative). A reunion is currently in the works for the Ellen Degeneres show.
And it doesn’t end there folks….
Eleven other dogs and two cats adopted by service members in Iraq or Afghanistan are in the pipeline for rescue, said Stephanie Scroggs, a spokeswoman for SPCA International. The SPCA will pay about $4,000 per rescue, Scroggs said. She acknowledged that the sum could aid many more stateside animals but said the program also supports the troops. [Washington Post]
In fact, Liberty and K-Pot are scheduled to arrive in the United States tomorrow. I can’t wait!
Related posts:
- “There Are No Gays In America”
- Mack: On Iraqi Blogger’s Trip Out West
- Whitest Man in America Compares Detroit to Iraq
- Saddam’s Sentencing: Grasping All That Fuss!
- America’s War On Democracy, And Its Price
I do appreciate your concession that you were flat-out wrong in your claim that American presence “has contributed to nothing but providing the environment for terrorism to thrive”.
it’s responsible for a bunch
Nope. They’re responsible for themselves.
Posted by Roy | February 21, 2008, 10:07 amwe are just responsible for the deaths caused since our invasion and occupation, only a million plus, but who’s counting
No, we’re not responsible for all deaths, only the ones we caused. And we took great pains to make sure they were the ones that needed to happen.
The “million plus” figure you pulled out of your ass is clear evidence that your “who’s counting” question is a valid one.
Posted by Roy | February 21, 2008, 10:09 amI am sure too that the Iraqi resistance, those fighting for their own country, the land WE invaded, when taking aim “took great pains to make sure they were the ones (deaths) that needed to happen”, our soldiers.
See Roy, there is always another side to your insipid argument. You and all your idiotic like-minded thinkers thought the Iraqis would lay down the welcome mat for our well thought out “liberation” of them. The only thing that needs liberation is the twisted mindset that thinks it’s permissable to engage in preemptive warfare based on lies. Read the Nuremberg Principles lately?
Met up face to face with anyone trying to “liberate” you at the point of a gun after bombing the hell out of your neighborhood lately Roy? I’m sure if you have you invited them in for tea and crumpets.
Posted by Robin | February 21, 2008, 11:04 amI am sure too that the Iraqi resistance, … “took great pains to make sure they were the ones (deaths) that needed to happen”, our soldiers.
Based on what? The Iraqi-on-Iraqi atrocities?
Don’t just make shit up. Plug into reality and offer something that might possibly be true based on solid facts.
See Roy, there is always another side to your insipid argument.
I never suggested there wasn’t. However, you can’t present it. You seem to think that “another side” means that you just swap “American” and “Iraqi” and you have something equally true.
The rest of your rant is based on making shit up. Nobody was talking about whether we’d be greeted as liberators until you dredged up that old straw man.
Facts. Relevance. Try them out.
Posted by Roy | February 21, 2008, 1:25 pmRoy:”I do appreciate your concession that you were flat-out wrong…”
Criticizing “America’s success” in killing one miserable terrorist is a concession of being wrong? nice try…
“you are not at all perturbed by the most colonizing entity in the middle east.”
That would be Israel and America.
“Conversely, nothing Americans do is worthy of anything but scorn.”
Actually, I DO like McDonalds….
Posted by b-cell | February 21, 2008, 5:47 pmCriticizing “America’s success” in killing one miserable terrorist is a concession of being wrong?
Yes, your claim was that we’d done nothing but foster terrorism. We have, in fact, killed quite a few terrorists.
That would be Israel and America.
Nope. There are no American colonies in the Middle East. The south of Lebanon has been an Iranian colony (Hezbollastan) for some time now. You know Hezbollah is Iranian, right?
Iran has been operating similarly in Iraq.
Israel’s settlements are small potatoes compared to Iran.
When you make a claim, you should give me some reason to believe it’s true, other than just because you say so.
I note again that you have no problem with Iran’s terroristic bid for conquest of its neighbors.
Posted by Roy | February 22, 2008, 9:02 amraedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2008/
02/brief-open-letter-to-washington-
post.html
I think Raed Jarrar says it best.
Posted by Robin | February 22, 2008, 11:33 pmRoy,
“…There are no American colonies in the Middle East.”
What about Iraq? Don’t tell the Anerican troops are there to fly doves and distribute candy!
“The south of Lebanon has been an Iranian colony (Hezbollastan) for some time now. You know Hezbollah is Iranian, right?”
Hezbollah is 100% Lebanese. They recieve aid from Iran, And Most of them are Shiets, but that does not make them less Lebanese. Hezbollah is a national resistance to the Israeli occupation to the south of Lebanon. And the only thing that stands in the way of a full Israeli occupation of Lebanon, Similar to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the 80′s.
Posted by Anonymous | February 24, 2008, 2:16 pmWhat about Iraq? Don’t tell the Anerican troops are there to fly doves and distribute candy!
What about Iraq? We don’t have any settlements there. We’re not even occupying, strictly speaking. Iraq has a government, and we are there at their behest. We are turning over control of regions as quickly as we can.
Hezbollah is 100% Lebanese.
That’s simply a lie. Hezbollah is funded, equipped, trained, and largely controlled by Iranians.
Hezbollah first emerged during the Lebanese Civil War in the early 1980s as a militia of Shia followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini, trained, organized and funded by a contingent of Iranian Revolutionary Guards
Since the Supreme Leader of Iran is the ultimate clerical authority, Hezbollah’s leaders have appealed to him “for guidance and directives in cases when Hezbollah’s collective leadership [was] too divided over issues and fail[ed] to reach a consensus.” After the death of Iran’s first Supreme Leader, Khomeini, Hezbollah’s governing bodies developed a more “independent role” and appealed to Iran less often.
Posted by Roy | February 25, 2008, 10:16 amHezbollah was found in a time when the sectarian war was devouring Lebanon. Your source says:
“Although Hezbollah originally aimed to transform Lebanon into an Islamic republic, this goal has been abandoned. Nasrallah has been quoted as saying, “We believe the requirement for an Islamic state is to have an overwhelming popular desire, and we’re not talking about fifty percent plus one, but a large majority. And this is not available in Lebanon and probably never will be.”"
Hezbollah is the only resistance Lebanon has against the Israeli threat. That’s why it’s very popular amongst all Lebanese “It holds 14 of the 128 seats in Lebanon’s Parliament” same source.
Posted by Anonymous | February 29, 2008, 5:51 amBut here’s the real reason why Roy hates Hezbollah:
“…Hezbollah’s spokesperson Hassan Ezzedin, however, had this to say about an Israeli withdrawal from Sheba Farms:
“If they go from Shebaa, we won’t stop fighting them. … Our goal is to liberate the 1948 borders of Palestine, … The Jews who survive this war of liberation can go back to Germany or wherever they came from. However, that the Jews who lived in Palestine before 1948 will be ‘allowed to live as a minority and they will be cared for by the Muslim majority.”"
PS the Israelis are still occupying Shebaa.
Posted by Anonymous | February 29, 2008, 5:57 amAhhhh its been so long since I sore Programmer Craig and his team of middle-easterner bashers abusing some poor Arab for feeling mistreated by US foreign policy that I was almost feeling warm and fuzzy inside!@!!!
Won’t you people go and spend some time making the world a better place instead of plaguing it with the foul shit coming from your mouths?
Posted by olivebranch | March 3, 2008, 7:16 amand by “sore” I refer to the hurt it causes my eyes to see it in action.
Posted by olivebranch | March 3, 2008, 7:26 amGreat post.
Posted by Iraqi Mojo | March 10, 2008, 9:13 am