Good reading about Iraq – Hope and Encouragement

Dear Friend,

Todays letter is a serious one but I think you will be glad that you took the time to read it and perhaps to investigate the sites that the two links lead to. Then again, you may be way ahead of me and have already found these popular sites.

Links to two sites – “Michael Yon: Online Magazine” and a video at “National Geographic” are at the end of this post.

“Michael Yon: Online Magazine” is a compilation of stories from Iraq mostly from American Service Men or articles writen by Yon from his times in Iraq and his travels visiting American Service men and women who have returned to the states. While he is a retired special forces soldier and does travel with our soldiers part of the time, his stories sound real (not propaganda) to me. Tthe articles are NOT anonymous but have names, dates, who said what – who took what picture – what and who they are - NOT anonymity. His blog is full of hope. He is an independent writer without a news agency or government salary but he has received lots of support in other ways from our armed forces. He is in many ways the voice of some of those soldiers. I am trying to paint a fair portrait of the man- but better yet - read his stuff and let me know what you think. He has been written about in many mainstream publications like “Fortune,” “Newsweek,” etc. You can see those articles on his site. Better yet, you can google him.

How does so much information (that Yon writes about) get left out of the newspapers that I read? I know that it is important to us all to know who died in Iraq today – no soldier's death should go unnoticed ever, and it is important to know of the hardships the Iraq people must endure and of those who find our presence hurtful. But there is so much more to the war – it is as if we are only seeing the stem of the peach with it’s darkening leaves and not the fruit or the seeds in the fruit that the stem holds.

The second site I am so grateful for is a very concise, pictorial summary of a longer article in “National Geographic” about the Kurds in Northern Iraq. This slide show with audio is an outline while the article contains the same information plus details. But concise is what I need, at times. This article is full of "cautious" hope. I have come back to think about what I have seen in this videoa couple of times already and I’ve only just watched/listened to it today.

In my book group, we sometimes refer to a book as a “good read.” It doesn’t have to be fiction although it may be fiction. It can be nonfiction that holds your interest and is probably even compelling to read. Both these sites are “good reads.”

Michael Yon: Online Magazine:
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/

National Geographic article about the progress the Kurds in Iraq have made toward freedom and self sufficiency:

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0601/sights_n_sounds/index.html

I am so grateful for sites like these. I have felt as if my site is sort of Pollyann-ish at times, but it really isn’t. My letters created for the blog simply don’t represent the entire spectrum of my thought or my life. It is meant to be a source of information for us who enjoy travel, eating, nature, reading, and other pursuits that bring much happiness to my life and hopefully yours. But my pleasure in reading doesn’t just include books – it includes periodicals and any other reading that enriches my life and these two sites certainly will. Thank you for stopping by today.

Take care,

Maggiegladyoucame