The Good Being Done in Iraq
How our soldiers are making a big difference in small places
By Tanya Biank
These are defining times for Americans and our military members serving in Iraq. After years of war, an unstable Iraqi government is seemingly incapable of standing on its own. Sectarian, insurgent and terrorist violence have claimed more than 3,000 American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives.
Despite the turmoil, good is occurring in Iraq that is worth noting. Medical staff members vaccinate children; workers rebuild schools and hospitals; soldiers distribute supplies; and aid workers give fertilizer and seeds to farmers.
Whether these and other efforts by coalition forces materialize into a stable and secure Iraq is unknown. For now, the military has a job to do.
Following are glimpses into the lives of American soldiers making a difference in a daunting place.
Orphanage
In the middle of one of the most war-torn parts of Iraq, little Elam, a 4-year-old orphaned Iraqi girl with cerebral palsy, dances amid the gunfire.
Erinn Singman looks on in amazement. Singman is one of many soldiers from the 759th Military Police Battalion, Fort Carson, Colo., who visit the East Baghdad orphanage run by the Sisters of Charity of Mother Teresa. The nuns care for abandoned babies and young children with mental and physical handicaps.
When time permits, soldiers distribute food, toys, medicine and clothes sent from their families and friends in the United States. Singman, a 26-year-old from Fairfax, Va., discovered that a little kindness goes a long way.
“Our soldiers are here first and foremost to complete a mission, to help rebuild and develop a democracy for a nation that has not known one,” she said. “Visiting the children at the orphanage allows the soldiers to interact in a positive manner with the people we’re really fighting for. If we can make Iraq better for the future of the children, and express our caring and compassion for them in the present day, it will hopefully have a lasting effect in their minds.”
It certainly has had an effect on some of the soldiers. “It is one of the positives in the midst of all the difficulties they experience in Iraq,” said the battalion’s chaplain, Mike DuCharme.
Singman was drawn to Elam because of her dimpled smile and show of affection. During one visit, the captain held Elam and guided her fingers across buttons on an alphabet song board. When the songs played, the girl’s face lit up as she threw her hands into the air and began to dance.
“Her enthusiasm overwhelmed me,” Singman said. “I couldn’t get enough of it. To see a child so happy to hear the music playing in the midst of the strife that exists within Baghdad . . . it was a beautiful sight. And even as we heard a few rounds shot off, I didn’t want to leave her.”