Good Neighbor Program

Quote of the Day:

I brought children into this dark world because it needed the

light only a child could bring.

--Liz Armbuster

Here are a few pictures from the other day from what is called the Good Neighbor Program, where we get a bunch of packages together and hand them to some Iraqi families living on base. I can't explain the extenuating circumstances as to why they are living on base but just that it was getting unsafe for them to live among the general populace. What an awesome experience it was to meet these little children, I always have had a soft spot in my heart for them, anywhere in the world actually not just here. In my travels to here and to Africa it has been the children that have affected me and taught me the most. As I was sitting there watching these children play I was lost in thought, wondering what it would have been like to have been in this country when the war first started, how scary it would have been for them during the first attacks. For a second I was angry with our country, but then I then I realized that most of these children were not old enough or were probably babies when we bombed Baghdad, and that they know no different than war. But what would there life had been like had we not intervened? I've heard of Saddam kidnapping and raping women and writing to their families asking them if they want to kill her or if he should so she wouldn't dishonor their family. What if that were to become of my new friends in these pictures. I personally don't care if Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, he was a horrible and murderous leader and the road to rebuilding this country has to start somewhere and even if its just a little bit better than what it was while he was in power then I think we have succeeded. I am over here in the last stages of our presence here. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over making way for New Dawn, as I see some rubble left over from 8 years ago I am reminded that this country has come a long way and these little children are the future. Who knows we may be back in ten years and these children could be who we are fighting but I would like to have more hope than that. There are other countries falling apart around us, this world is turning into a dark place, but as long as we still have hope in the sparkling eyes and smiles of children like these adorable Iraqi girls then there is still hope for us all.