If you watch or read the news, everything in Iraq is going so terribly bad and it is getting worse everyday. Blood, death, tears, horrors, civial war ...

But if you listen to what our soldiers say and see what they do, you will get a different story. Johnathan Benson, a marine from North Branch, Minnesota, died last Saturday after suffering serious injuries in Iraq. What was very touching about his story was that he had the chance to get out of the military after his first tour. But he didn't. He went back volunteerly for his second tour. He truly believed what he was doing and he wanted to be with his army buddies. This isn't the first time I heard from soldiers that in spite of the negative portraying by the media, they believe they are doing good things in Iraq. But you never hear how our troops are helping Iraq in getting back on its feet. Is this just the way media is selling fear or is it that there is just nothing good going on there?

This is a topic that I am a little passionate about, as I am sure y’all have figured. Let me share why.

First, yea, I am former military, and yea, I voted for the big eared moron in office. (Don’t get me wrong, I still think he was the better choice, I am just man enough to admit that he ain’t the most shining example the south coulda put up)

But here’s a side of the story that y’all might not have heard about:

Oct. 28, 2003 – A health clinic and two schools near Mosul, Iraq, opened. I had a little girl hug my leg so hard it hurt, and tho I couldn’t understand what she was saying, I think it was thank you, thank you, thank you.

By the end of 2003, we had opened a water treatment plant in south east Iraq that brought water to 40,000 people. The only source of water to this area previous to this was the Tigris river, which is contaminated from the influx of raw sewage upriver.

In February of 2005, I watched as hundreds of Iraqi men and women held ink stained fingers in the air after voting for the first time. Tears streamed down many of their faces after doing something that I had done since I was 18 and something that many people in our country just don’t do at all.

While I don’t necessarily agree with the reasons given for the initial invasion, I believe two things.

1. If anyone in our country honestly believes that we don’t need a foothold in the Middle East at this day and age, they need to take the California blinders off.

2. Iraq, as a whole, is better off for what we have done for them. Have we made mistakes? Yes. Will there be a civil war in the country soon? Probably. (Remember, we had one of those too) Have we started the country in a direction of finding it’s own way? Absolutely.