Fraters Libertas

Clock Cleaning and Toy Giving

A few months ago we had a post on efforts sponsored by the Spirit of America to raise money for the 1st Marine Division to bring supplies to the people of Iraq. Here's an update on how things are going for the Marines in Iraq:

As you know from the news, the 1st Marine Division that Spirit of America and our donors have been supporting is in a very difficult and dangerous situation in Iraq.

One of the messages I frequently get from them is that it's a very small number of people that are causing the problems we see. In other words, they don't want us to give up on the Iraqi people or on the Marines' mission in Iraq.

One LtCol emailed, "The only thing I would ask is that you get the word out to your friends not to let the drama created in the media reporting drive them to lose heart with regards to our mission here. Sure we have taken some casualties, but the people we are fighting are criminals, terrorists, and punks and we are cleaning their clock. The best thing we can do is to keep fighting and clean house. If we don't take care of business now, these hoods will be around to cause problems in the future."

Things with distribution of goods we donated to support the Marines "No Better Friend" plan have been understandably delayed by increased the conflict. The Marines had great plans and intentions to demonstrate to the Iraqi people they were there to help rebuild the country. Their intentions remain the same, the plans have changed of necessity. Despite the conflict, the Marines' distribution of Frisbees and soccer balls has begun.

The WSJ's Daniel Henninger also has a piece on Spirit of America's latest effort:

The First Marine Expeditionary Force and U.S. Army in Iraq want to equip and upgrade seven defunct Iraqi-owned TV stations in Al Anbar province--west of Baghdad--so that average Iraqis have better televised information than the propaganda they get from the notorious Al-Jazeera. If Jim Hake can raise $100,000, his Spirit of America will buy the equipment in the U.S., ship it to the Marines in Iraq and get Iraqi-run TV on the air before the June 30 handover.

Donate to the SOA television effort here.