Well, it’s not exactly soap opera material, but have you heard the latest…
This story is not nearly as important as when Britney Spears shaved her head, or when Anna Nichole Smith died unexpectedly, so please excuse my enthusiasm. Our mainstream media works overtime to bring you all of those very, very important headlines. So, as a blogger all I am left with is humdrum news like the following piece of amazing history.
I can post the information below from the source I found, but I am not sure if hell has actually frozen over or not — fortunately I have no inside connections to that information.
Sunni and Shia sheiks unite in Balad
by Rick Rzepka
(excerpt)
1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne DivisionBALAD, Iraq (April 12, 2008) — For the first time since sectarian tension embroiled the Balad area, Sunni and Shia sheiks and local community leaders gathered in the same place to promote unity among various tribes.
More than one hundred sheiks and tribal elders from the communities of Duluiyah, Ishaki and the surrounding area gathered in a town-hall style meeting on April 3 to discuss repairing fractious differences in an attempt to bring peace and prosperity to the citizens of the region, which is comprised of about 40 percent Shia and 60 percent Sunni.
While tensions mount in the southern province of Basra, Shia and Sunni leaders have pledged cooperation and unity in the Balad area in an effort to stimulate the local economy through recent security gains.
OK, this explains why you will not see this information in the mainstream media. See, if they print the bolded parts of this text that would be a back door admission that they have not given the surge fair coverage and they have been falsely decrying the surge’s failure.
Among the Shieks and elders, the governor of the Salah ad Din province, Hamad Hamood Shekti, was all smiles as he spoke enthusiastically about the way forward for the Iraqi people.
“There is hope here today,” said Shekti who praised the sheiks for setting aside their differences to build on common ground.
“Today we are not Shi’a or Sunni, we are Iraqis,” he said.
Is that the sweet sound of patriotism I hear? Nationalism where there used to be none? The sweet, sweet sound of success is what that phrase is to me. Success that has been hard won with long hours and many sacrifices.
Employment and security were on the minds of most of the Iraqi influencers as they clamored over which comes first, jobs or guns. For many here, the answer is jobs.
“We must be able to support our families,” said a Sunni sheik.
“We must be able to work together,” he said.
<snip>
“I would like to see more people volunteer for the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police,” said Balad Mayor Amar Hali Mirhon.
“More participation from other tribes encourages the population to trust the army and police,” he said.
As the people of the Balad area continue to see an improved security situation, they are gaining confidence in the cooperation between local leaders.
“We understand that a lot of people lost their jobs because of past events, but we have settled our differences, and we welcome you all,” said Balad City Council Vice President Malik Lafta Ahmad.
A quick note here at the end for those in Congress to heed. This is how progress is made. This is how things get done. Maybe you should all take a field trip to Balad and watch productivity, patriotism and good old fashioned collaboration unfold. It’s quite a site to behold, I am sure.
YAY!