Never forget; MIAs still in Iraq
Bingham Jamison, a former Marine Corps officer with two combat tours in Iraq writes today in Time magazine to remind us that we have troops left behind in Iraq;
To me, [Staff Sergeant Ahmed Kousay Altaie, kidnapped by Shiite militia in Baghdad on October 23, 2006] service to our country represents the best of America – an immigrant, from Iraq no less, that was willing to trade his comfortable life in Michigan for the dangers of the battlefield. Fighting to protect the country that he adopted, and that adopted him, is the epitome of the very courage that keeps our country free and strong. This dual love for America and Iraq makes his abduction that much more difficult to bear.
The second Marine, a linguist named Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, was a fraud – after being seemingly abducted by insurgents in Iraq in June 2004, and rumored to have been beheaded (following a video being aired on al-Jazeera with a masked man holding a sword over his head), Hassoun was later charged with desertion and his abduction was subsequently deemed an elaborate hoax. He remains at large, and is thought to be hiding in Lebanon. His despicable acts have tainted the true horror of every American MIA since.
Just a reminder that not all of the troops came home last month. And America never forgets.
Category: Military issues
Hassoun is a despicable scumbag and his actions cast a false aspersion on our guys. That is very different from the 4/25 guy who was just a foolish dumbass, who walked off his COP on a “nature hike”.
The Matt Maupin mystery went on for years.
[…] to the story about Army Staff Sgt. Ahmed Altaie, the last American MIA in Iraq. We wrote about him last month briefly. His family in the US tells McClatchy that he has been confirmed as KIA and his remains are in the […]