Thanks to Michael Yon for making this iconic image available for free for a limited time:
Yon writes:
A Muslim man had invited the American soldiers from “Chosen†Company 2-12 Cavalry to the church, where I videotaped as Muslims and Christians worked and rejoiced at the reopening of St John’s, an occasion all viewed as a sign of hope.
The Iraqis asked me to convey a message of thanks to the American people. †Thank you, thank you,†the people were saying. One man said, “Thank you for peace.†Another man, a Muslim, said “All the people, all the people in Iraq, Muslim and Christian, is brother.†The men and women were holding bells, and for the first time in memory freedom rang over the ravaged land between two rivers.
This photo deserves and needs to be as widely published and seen as possible.
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The Anchoress touches on the simplicity of the image:
What I see in this picture is something more than a historic moment - I don’t even know if that’s what we should call it - I see the sort of thing people do when they are neighbors, when they are working together for their neighborhood, for the good of all who live there, and that to me makes it seem less “historic” than calmly, wonderfully normal, ordinary, sane and wholesome. I see tolerance, which so many are so certain cannot exist in Iraq - or anywhere in the Middle East. Tolerance in the best sense of the word - converting no one, insisting on nothing beyond ordinary acceptance; tolerance that gives people room to live their lives.
Simple acts of everyday life, taken for granted by so many, yet for these people it is a rebirth.
Michael Yon’s story about camera selection was interesting, but as he said, the number one requirement for taking a great photo is to be there, even with an aging camera.
I wonder whatever happened to the daily stories of doom and gloom, and what was the word that the Admiral of the Chappaquidick used on the Senate floor? Ahh…“quagmire!”
So we have gone from “quagmire” to “thank you for peace,” but we wouldn’t know it without intrepid independent journalist like Michael Yon.
Robbie, if you haven’t read it, the last entry by Jeff Emanuel was riveting.
Left by no2liberals on November 7th, 2007 at 11:46 pm