A Higher Ideal: The New Iraqi Army and Police

You have to admire the new Iraqi army and police forces. Under coalition tutelage, they have become a professional fighting force with discipline, cohesiveness, bravery and skill. Many of these Iraqi soldiers are dying in the fight against barbarism, exposing themselves to mortal danger and sacrificing their lives to protect their people, their country, their elected government. I imagine that deep down a soldier needs to believe in something larger than himself before he can go against the basic instinct of self-preservation, before he can arise from the trenches and expose himself to whizzing bullets and exploding shells, when every natural instinct is screaming at him to get the hell out of there.

Confederate Yankee blog reports the following case in point:

(Wednesday, March 22): About 60 gunmen attacked the police station in Madain,
south of Baghdad, with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles, said
police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammadawi. U.S. troops and a special Iraqi police
unit responded, catching the insurgents in crossfire, he said.

Four police were killed, including the commander of the special unit, and five were
wounded, al-Mohammadawi said.

These brave Iraqis did not flinch or run away, they stayed to fight and to defeat the enemy. Some of them gave their lives. Whatever I think of their religion, I have to admire them as men.

They are not the Iraqi street gangs of old, they are a professional fighting force. Professionalism means standards of performance and accountability, but more than this, it means seeing the larger picture, believing in a higher ideal and putting your own desires, fears and even your own life second to that ideal. What is that ideal? A government of laws where people can be safe and secure in their homes, their towns, their every day lives. Safe and free.