Sometimes, there's good news from Iraq too. I love this little story (from yesterday's AP). It's a great lesson in honor and respect flowing both ways. It might be the best $130,000 we've ever spent in Iraq--and a better ambassador for the American people we could not have found if we had tried.
Sheik Horn floats around the room in white robe and headdress, exchanging pleasantries with dozens of village leaders. But he's the only sheik with blonde streaks in his mustache -- and the only one who attended country music star Toby Keith's recent concert in Baghdad with fellow U.S. soldiers. Officially, he's Army Staff Sgt. Dale L. Horn, but to residents of the 37 villages and towns that he patrols, he's known as the American sheik.
Sgt. Horn, 25, a native of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., acknowledges he had little interest in the region before coming here. But a local sheik friendly to U.S. forces, Mohammed Ismail Ahmed, explained the inner workings of rural Iraqi society on one of Sgt. Horn's first Humvee patrols.... and [Sgt. Horn] started making a point of stopping by all the villages, all but one dominated by Sunni Arabs, to talk with people about their life and security problems. Moreover, he pressed for development projects in the area. He boasts that he helped funnel $136,000 worth of aid into the area. Part of that paid for delivery of clean water to 30 villages during the broiling summer months.
Sheik Ahmed, Sgt. Horn's mentor and known for his dry sense of humor, eventually suggested during a meeting of village leaders that Sgt. Horn be named a sheik. The sheiks approved by voice vote... Some sheiks later gave him five sheep and a postage stamp of land, fulfilling some of the requirements for sheikdom. Others encouraged him to start looking for a second wife, which Sgt. Horn's spouse back in Florida immediately vetoed.
But what may have started as a joke among crusty village elders has sprouted into something serious enough for 100 to 200 village leaders to meet with Sgt. Horn each month to discuss security issues. Sgt. Horn doesn't take his responsibilities lightly. He lately has been prodding the Iraqi Education Ministry to pay local teachers, and he closely follows a water-pipeline project that he hopes will ensure the steady flow of clean water to his villages.
...To Sgt. Horn's commanders, his success justifies his unorthodox approach: No rockets have hit their base in the past half year. "He has developed a great relationship with local leaders," said Lt. Col. Bradley Becker, who commands the 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment. "They love him. They're not going to let anyone shoot at Sheik Horn."
3 comments:
I'm reminded of a line from Lawrence of Arabia: "He does it better than you. But then he is almost an Arab."
// posted by Raised By Republicans
This is amazing, and gives me hope that not all of thoses boys over there are gun happy killers.
// posted by Jake
I know a couple of people who went to serve in Iraq as low-level officers, and since then, I've had the chance to meet several more who were more higher-ranking. None are gun-happy killers. They are brothers, fathers, and husbands. They are frustrated, frightened, and determined. That nearly 2000 of these men have been killed (and 10,000 or more wounded) feels like an even greater tragedy to me.
I hope we can bring them all home soon. I hope we will realize that stabilizing Iraq is not equivalent to ending all the insurgent violence--that's too tall an order. In fact, if we were to leave soon, I wonder if it might quiet down even sooner. Let's hope so.
Until then, I will enjoy stories like those of Sheik Horn that show we may well have the best-educated Army in the world, and that we have been learning from past mistakes. I think the Army is doing a very good job of executing the lousy policy they have been given to execute. If only good intentions led always to good results...
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