***Warning! This is a very emotional email.***

Please, please, please be aware when viewing this picture.  It is not necessarily gory, but REAL, and it will bring different emotions for everyone!  As I have said before, you may not agree with what is going on over in Iraq but it is becoming more evident every day that they are appreciating what we, or our soldiers, are attempting to do.

My friend who sent me this e-mail is very close to this war because her husband is over there fighting.  He left 6 months ago asking why he had to go and fight for somebody else's problems and is now refusing to leave until their 'problem' is resolved.  This issue that Americans have chosen to put ourselves in the middle of is real, even if we here at home don't feel any different - and even if you don't believe in the cause you can at least thank those who are taking it on and diving in with their head, heart, and soul in hopes that the ugliness will not reach us here and that our children can remain safe.  Please say a prayer for our soldiers and the rest of those who are experiencing a world we will never understand because we are free.

cm

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An incredible, and incredibly sad picture. I thought long and hard about sending this, but decided that it should be shared. We read the headlines everyday, and in this case it read, "Terrorist attack kills two Iraqi children, injures 15," and can still remain detached from what is happening. This photo forces you to feel emotion and not just toss the news aside without thought. I immediately cried when I saw this: for the child, for the parents, for the soldiers, and for the country, then ran to my girls bedroom and hugged them tight.

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Major Mark Bieger found this little girl after the car bomb that attacked our guys while kids were crowding around. The soldiers here have been angry and sad for two days. They are angry because the terrorists could just as easily have waited a block or two and attacked the patrol away from the kids. Instead, the suicide bomber drove his car and hit the Stryker when about twenty children were jumping up and down and waving at the soldiers. Major Bieger, I had seen him help rescue some of our guys a week earlier during another big attack, took some of our soldiers and rushed this little girl to our hospital. He wanted her to have American surgeons and not to go to the Iraqi hospital. She didn't make it. I snapped this picture when Major Bieger ran to take her away. He kept stopping to talk with her and hug her.

The soldiers went back to that neighborhood the next day to ask what they could do. The people were very warming and welcomed us into their homes, and many kids were actually running up to say hello and to ask soldiers to shake hands.

Eventually, some insurgents must have realized we were back and started shooting at us. The American soldiers and Iraqi police started engaging the enemy and there was a running gun battle. I saw at least one IP who was shot, but he looked okay and actually smiled at me despite the big bullet hole in his leg. I smiled back.

One thing seems certain; the people in that neighborhood share our feelings about the terrorists. We are going to go back there, and if any terrorists come out, the soldiers hope to find them. Everybody is still very angry that the insurgents attacked us when the kids were around. Their day will come.
 

Michael Yon

The caption reads: Picture released by the U.S. Army Tuesday, May 3, 2005 shows a U.S. Army soldier comforting a child fatally wounded in a car bomb blast in Mosul, 360 km (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, May 2, 2005. 15 Iraqis were wounded in the combined suicide bomb attack