<

Friendly Exchange - No Fire

This report was filed by Darpak Chaitanya
of the New World Times of India on March 29, 23:00 GMT

Eesa Bhegla -
The sounds of children singing were heard in the distance. In this village of 200 Iraqis which lies many miles due east of Nahr Umr, and in the proverbial middle of nowhere, a group of US soldiers occupying this small village investigated and followed the voices to their origin in what was otherwise a very quiet place where residents stayed indoors only tending to essential tasks and up until this point the only interaction between villagers and the soldiers had been through Arabic speaking soldiers.

Sgt. First Class Orson Tessedra was quite shocked by what they found when they passed around the corner of a long adobe style building which serves as the village's town council.

"We heard singing in broken English and we come upon a group of about 7 or 8 children who are singing the lyrics to "America the Beautiful." They had scratched the shape of an American flag in the dust. One of the oldest, a boy no more than 12 had taught the other children with the help of an old US school music book which had somehow emigrated to this part of the world long before we got here.

I'll tell you - I'm a man who doesn't shed a lot of tears and up to this point even after the bloodshed I've seen, something about seeing those kids sing brought tears to my eyes the first time since I arrived. I knew they appreciated our presence here and this was their way of showing their gratitude. When they got to "join the good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea", I was just busting up."

This reporter witnessed the event and managed to interview the ringleader of the singers who goes by the name of Asiq. I asked him why he taught the other children a song that was patriotic for Americans and not for Iraqis. His reply was slow and measured as he searched for the correct words, "I sing song so that Americans don't go way." It was apparent that these villagers fear the return of enforcers such as the Fedayeen, who reportedly number some 45,000 throughout Iraq.

For many of the soldiers this encounter has been the highlight of their tour of duty and they exchange smiles with the children when they play in the streets near the Bradley fighting vehicles and the coalition forces stationed throughout the town.

It is apparent that many hope that this sort of encounter will become the rule rather than the exception as the war proceeds, but reports regarding civilians sharing their precious food with hungry US soldiers in other parts of southern Iraq are hopefully an example of things to come.

Hard to imagine that Bowser is talking about the same folks who he says must hate being "Bombed into Democracy."

SDAI-Tech1