While Americans vigorously debate Iraq War policy, it’s too easy to forget the individual sacrifices, acts of bravery and actions that make a difference. The real “decision maker” is the military person in the field who has to make life-death decisions each day. Lest we forget, here’s a story from the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Members of the Minnesota National Guard rescued three victims shackled to bloodstained walls during a raid earlier this week on a “torture house” near Fallujah in Iraq. The troops discovered shackles, chains, clubs and a blowtorch in the raid.
One of the victims had been burned and cut; his kneecaps were shattered and he was slipping into shock when the troops discovered him.
The troops who found the victims were part of Company B of the 2-136th Infantry. They were on patrol late Monday and early Tuesday and expected to find the house — but not victims — inside, said Capt. Chip Rankin of Litchfield.
“They looked like they hadn’t eaten or had any water in a long time,” Rankin said in a news release provided by the Multinational Corps Iraq in Baghdad. “There’s no doubt we saved those three individuals’ lives by getting there when we did.”
After discovering the three men, the troops, a contingent of the Minnesota National Guard based between Fallujah and Ramadi in Anbar Province, detained 10 people identified by the victims as people who lived in the house. Eleven others had been captured in an earlier operation. Seven of the detainees were later identified as known Al-Qaida operatives, and another seven were identified as known insurgents or criminals, the release said.
As the increasingly heated debate continues over past, present and future Iraq policy — something valid and desirable in a democracy in which the entire decision on policies does not rest exclusively with the executive branch — it’s important to keep in mind the people in the field who (no matter what politicians and talking-heads on both sides are saying) are out there doing risky daily assignments. As the reader notes in his email to us, there are some “bright spots” like these people being freed from brutal torture and likely death.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.