Rambo | Filed under General
We give a lot, we might give too much, how much is too much, is there too much, I saw something on TV last night that made me stop and think. I know we don’t know the whole story.
The story is about Rambo, no not that Rambo silly…you want to know I know but you know how I am, I need to make certain I have your attention. I need to make certain I really get the most I can out of this post and I don’t have a lot to say because I’m a female and don’t know much about Rambo because well Sylvester Stallone is not my man and I don’t do violence well unless maybe it’s Mel Gibson or Harrison Ford they do melt my butter.
I did have a story I really did and it did get me to thinking but I have been visiting Mr. Haney’s blog called Rambling On and found that I share that with him. I believe it is something required to live in Georgia. Yes you see we might be neighbors and not know it…well I would know if Mr. H. was my neighbor because he is nice and my neighbors or not as nice as he is. I’ll tell you a story about my neighbors another time, they are related and we live between them. They just scream back and forth to each other instead of visiting or calling on the phone many times.
Oh but the Rambo story…it seems an Iraqi soldier was shot Christmas Day in his personal car, wearing civilian clothes, when another vehicle intercepted him . That soldier is now here in Georgia at the Shepherd Center, a specialized hospital for brain and spinal cord injuries. The paralyzed 28-year-old, known by the alias Captain Furat, has been in Atlanta more than two months, receiving free treatment at Shepherd Center, According Dr. Don Leslie, the Shepherd Center’s medical director, Rambo who was shot 12 times in a December ambush says he is making good medical progress since arriving in the United States. Leslie says he is paralyzed from the waist down and complains of back pain caused by nerve damage. But he’s been weaned off narcotic painkillers and may one day be able to walk with the help of special leg braces. He has made progress to the point that last week he was moved to a nearby apartment but continues to visit the center for daily rehabilitation and outpatient treatment.
In case you wonder, the Iraqi soldier was decorated in the Iraqi Army’s “Tiger Battalion,” but wanted to be identified by a false name, Furat, because of threats to his family. He also got the name Rambo because some U.S. soldiers who fought alongside Furat referred to him as “Rambo,” due to his bravery and the way he wielded a heavy machine gun and ammunition belts.
So what do you think, I’m just asking?
May 2nd, 2006 at 11:12 pm
They are fighting alongside of our boys over there and their losses are much as ours. I don’t have a problem with him getting treatment here. He has probably saved our boys on numerous occasions. That’s my 2 cents for what it’s worth.
May 3rd, 2006 at 12:24 am
I agree with Phoenix. I wish we could extract ourselves from there but don’t think we can just up and leave. The only way out seems to be what we are doing, training their own troops to take over as we turn the country over to their control. I expect we will have advisors at least, there for years.
Should we have gone in in the first place? I don’t think there are any easy answers to that one. Given what Iraq was thought to have in weaponry I guess it made sense. Is the average Iraqi citizen better off now than before? Probably not, unless they were on the wrong side of Sadam. But they have the potential of being a whole lot better off. I hope they will recognize that many of their current problems are coming from non-citizens and stop supporting them. The change has to come from within the country.
May 3rd, 2006 at 12:55 am
I agree with both Phoenix and Dick. It doesn’t really matter who the man is. When soldiers are called up to fight,they don’t lose their identity as human beings.
Just my thoughts.
May 3rd, 2006 at 1:30 am
Allies help each other on and off the battlefield so I see nothing wrong with it, in fact it should be the norm.
You just can’t ask someone to risk their life and when he needs you, you let him down.
It was the right thing to do.
May 3rd, 2006 at 2:15 am
I don’t care what race, religion or sex anyone is. He deserves as much care as any other soldier. He is someones son, brother, husband or dad.
May 3rd, 2006 at 3:11 am
Bravery is bravery. I think we win over Iraqis by treating them like human beings. This man was injured in the defense of his country, fighting the war we started. Of course we should help him.
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:03 am
He’s human, it doesn’t matter what religion, nationality, or anything else because he deserves the best care possible. Life is precious. Ditto to what everyone else said.
May 3rd, 2006 at 2:56 pm
I agree with every comment. We don’t choose where or to whom we are born. We are all flesh and blood. Thanks for that story, Ms. Vickie.
May 3rd, 2006 at 2:59 pm
It’s unanimous Vickie.
May 3rd, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Add my vote in too. I am glad he is here. He would probably never have a chance in his home country.
May 4th, 2006 at 1:50 am
A life is a life, it doesn’t matter where a person comes from, his life is precious as is all life.
May 4th, 2006 at 3:14 pm
I’m just glad he’s getting the help he needs.
Hiya Vicki!!!!
May 4th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
Amen to all these comments. I hope that he has a miracle in his recovery.
May 4th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
Just popping over to see if you’ve posted. Have a good day, Ms. Vickie!
May 4th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
Any soldier who is greatly commented for by our own service men has to be someone they respected while they were fighting along side of him. So, their words are enough for me. I wish him good health with a thankyou for standing along side of our soldiers and being someone they could trust and depend on.
May 4th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
I agree with everyone, everybody seems to have summed up what I feel already.
May 4th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
My friend, you know all of these soldiers are sons and daughters to me…more so than to some others because I know exactly what it feels like to have a child there…to have the post call and say he’s wounded but they are superficial RTD (return to duty) wounds…to jump every time the phone rings or there’s a knock on the door.
Thank you, “Rambo”, for your service…for your commitment…for being YOU. Why? Because when my son left Iraq, he told me he left friends. He grew to love and respect many of the Iraqi people. One young man, a translator my son worked with, used to tease my son and tell him to eat, saying, “M….., your mama come looking for us, she get mad if you get sick over here.”
And thank you, Vickie, for sharing his story with us. Too bad the media doesn’t want to share some of the human-interest feel-good stories…the soldiers brought home many to share.
May 4th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
From what I hear, Captain Furat is one of the good guys and deserves the best of what we have to offer him.
It’s not people like him that are the ones bankrupting our healthcare system.
May 5th, 2006 at 3:57 am
I agree with se7en, I stand by our military hands down.
TGIF and have a nice weekend.
May 5th, 2006 at 5:34 am
Everytime i hear a soldier story i think — what it must have been like for my Dad .. in WWII or my brother in Viet Nam..how scared they must have been at times.. so young. Thankfully, they both came home in tact. It pains me to hear/see these young men lose their lives/limbs - regardless which country they are from.
Thanks for visitng my place the other day - via FTS.
May 6th, 2006 at 12:41 am
Looking at it from another country but one involved in Iraq, I’m just glad he’s getting the help he needs. He’s somebody’s son, maybe brother. Wouldn’t we all want the same for him if he was our brother/son/whatever?
May 6th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Should we be worried more than usual about you? My prayers are yours Vickie.
May 6th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
I’m glad he is getting the help he both needs and deserves. Unfortunately - it spotlights the lack of adequate care being afforded his brothers in arms as well as our own soldiers. I have read far too many stories of late chronicling the difficulties injured vets incur upon arriving home from the battlefield. Captain Furat was helped in part for the publicity it offered. And doesn’t that speak badly for our government? His American counterparts shouldn’t have had to lobby for him. And other injured Iraqi soldiers should have access to the same intensive care.
We tend to forget, sometimes, that there are committed, honest native Iraqis fighting alongside our own men and women. I read Baghdad Burning, and Riverbends personal, encapsulated view of both war and warriors tends to color my thinking. Unfortunately, she has never run into the Captain Furats of Iraq. The local soldiers that stage raids on her neighborhood are thugs in comparison. If we are to succeed in preventing hatred from permanently taking root over there, it is soldiers like he that must eventually take over from our own. I wish him well.
May 6th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
Thanks Vickie….I agree with everyone. Maybe someday soon I will be your neighbor too.!!?? I promise I won’t yell.