What my mother taught me

I hope you have seen the TV ads for "The Other Iraq". If not, go here and view take a look. While you're there, take a look at the whole site, it has interesting tid-bits like this:

Hidden in the shadows of history, resistance against repression became the Kurdish way of life, until atrocities inflicted by a dictator named Saddam Hussein sent shock waves throughout the world causing people of ever nation to ask, “Who are the Kurds?”

For many, awareness arrived on ‘Bloody Friday’ in March of nineteen eighty-eight when Saddam dropped poisonous gas on the Kurdish city of Halabja killing five thousand within minutes, followed by seven thousand more as the bombing continued for days.

Halabja was not Saddam’s only chemical attack against Iraq’s Kurds, it was simply the worst, captured in all its horrific detail, making it a symbol of the atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein.

I know, you'd heard that. We all have, and for many years now. But what about this snippet?

INTERVIEW: PROFESSOR NAZAR AMIN:
At the time when the central Iraqi regime - before the toppling of Saddam Hussein, was busy with creating weapons of mass destruction, we were busy planting trees and creating new classes at our universities and opening new departments and building centers of education for our children and for our youth

The Kurds and Iraqis alike should have been doing this a long time ago...and not just for economic development opportunities. They should have been making it known, to their fellow countrymen, their fellow Muslims, to the American people and to the world, that this war in Iraq is just, itis necessary, and it is appreciated.

The U.S. and the world waited too long to address Saddam Hussein, but it has now. Instead of celebrating that, instead of defending those who liberated them from Hussein, too many Iraqis are silent. Allowing a great injustice to be done to those who, finally, answered their call.

Now we find ourselves increasingly battered, not by just the Muslim extremists, not just by the do-nothing United Nations, not just by the "America's too powerful, let's undermine everything they do" French and Germans, et. al., but by our own countrymen - the left wing nut jobs, the main stream media who will make news if they must and never let facts get in the way of a juicy scandal, the blue & gray hippies who must turn everything into a 1960s redux, the uber-rich & famous who need something to do between martinis & botox treaments, all of the liberal and most of the moderate Democrats who must try to bring down the president to continue feeding on the public teat and increasingly, the Republican's positioning themselves for a run for the Top Dog job.

They should all be ashamed of themselves.

Shhhh....listen, hear what they are saying:

"The United States has never wavered in its quest to help Iraqis build a democracy that rewards compromise and consensus. The ever generous American people have paid a tragic price, the lives of their finest men and women, to advance the banner of freedom and democracy, a sacrifice for which we are profoundly grateful."

H.E. Masoud Barzani, President, Kurdistan Region in Iraq

"And something else is different in Kurdistan: they like Americans here. Both US presidents, father and son Bush, are considered liberators of Kurdistan. The elder, because he imposed the 1991 no-fly zone, which made the Kurds more independent and laid the groundwork for today's turn for the better."

Berliner Zeitung

Maybe it's just an ad. Maybe it's simpley designed to increase economic growth. I don't know. I do know I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud of my President who has the strength of character to do what is right. I'm proud of those men and women who put on that uniform everyday for others - you, me, the murdered of September 11, 2001, the Iraqis, the Afghanis, the South Vietnamese, the South Koreans, the French, Polish, and on and on.

My mom taught me when I was just small that it's only polite to say thank you when someone does something for you.

So, President Bush: thank you. United States Armed Forces: thank you.

The Other Iraq: you're welcome...