The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

(Page 3 of 5)

Post ran an unusual feature on Sunday as well: last letters home by some 21 American soldiers killed in the Iraq War. They're exceptionally moving and disturbing at once, since one can't help but feel that he's intruding on truly personal matters (does it honor a dead Marine to learn that he ended his final letter to his wife that he loved her and "Zoe" more than anything, and that "It does not matter if Zoe is not mine..."?). A few of the dead appear frightened, or have premonitions; several others are already making plans for after they've returned. Each had deep love of family and country, a pride in his mission, a long life to look forward to. It's all too sad for words. As one signed off, after describing why "today would be a beautiful fishing day" -- "Well, Pop, not much else to say on paper." /p>

After describing a three-day sandstorm, a 22 year old Marine added this: "Oh yeah, I've seen a camel. Just one it was in the back of someone's pickup truck. Just chilling cruising down the road. Like a dog in the back of someone's truck back home. Well gotta go...."

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p> The Shiites' Winning Picture (posted 4/24/03 1:20 a.m.) br> We are no longer between Iraq and a hard place. We are in a hard place. The pictures told the story early on. Recall the famous toppling of the Saddam statue on Firdos Square. For such a grand moment, it sure was sparsely attended. At best there were a few hundred participants, a crowd that on TV seemed as small as the groups that several days earlier had supposedly greeted Saddam on along a Baghdad street. /p>

But the real contrast was with other gatherings that began to appear on the screen and in newspaper photos -- of Shiites in huge thick crowds that made an entirely different impression. And from all indications, they have about as much use for America as they did for Saddam. Gratitude doesn't seem to be on the table. As Shiite pilgrims go on their unmerry way to Karbala and Najaf, common ground with Western man is the last thing one can imagine on the Iraqi horizon.

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