Posted on 09/24/2008 7:05:29 PM PDT by mdittmar
NAJAF, Iraq –The Iraqi Air Force and Army took another step toward taking care of their citizens when they delivered a planeload of humanitarian goods to displaced residents in the Najaf Province. The shipment came from private charitable organizations in the United States, but was coordinated and delivered by Iraqi Security Forces.
The shipment of supplies was loaded onto a C-130 cargo plane owned, piloted and crewed by IqAF, at New Al Muthana Air Base in Baghdad. The hour-long flight took the material to Najaf in the Southwest area of Iraq. From there it was taken to a forward operating base controlled by the Najaf Provincial Reconstruction Team, which is made up of U.S. Army Soldiers and state department officials. The PRT separated and sorted numerous items including; shoes, warm-up clothes and wheelchairs, then loaded everything onto Iraqi Army cargo trucks.
The following day, Soldiers from the Iraqi Army took the supplies to the Al Manathiraa district of Najaf to a camp for internally displaced people. These are Iraqis who have fled other areas due to violence during the last few years. More than 3,000 men women and children live in the camp predominantly made of tents and container housing units.
Families from the camp lined up a few at a time as the supplies were distributed by Iraqi Soldiers. They also gave away soccer balls from a foundation called kickfornick.com, organized in memory of U.S. Army Pfc. Nick Madaras, who was killed by an improvised explosive device in Sept. 2006 near Baqubah.
The Governor of Najaf Province, Asaad Abu Gulal, and other community leaders were on hand to help with the distribution as well. Gulal thanked both the American and Iraqi Soldiers for their cooperation and support.
Khudhaer Al-Jinbury, Mayor of the Al Manathirraa district of Najaf said, “This is an indicator of how thoughtful they [Soldiers] are, thinking of the people in this camp. “
The PRT was joined by a U.S. Army Military Training Team to help oversee the distribution.
“We were here to help get it done,” said Evan McCarthy, the PRT’s Provincial Action Officer. “Quite frankly, I don’t think we even needed to be here today. The Iraqis could probably pull this off completely themselves.”
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Because we’re the United States of America,the leader of the free world,that’s what we do.
Actually, during Hurricane Gustav, the Canadian Forces sent a CC-130 and a SAR team down, but they weren’t needed, so they went home. We’re a rich country, despite all the foo foo rah about the economy.
To be fair, Canada is not a real country anyway..
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