More heartening stories from Iraq

From the All the Good We're Doing in Iraq Chronicles, an Iraqi mother writes:

I write to you in a very distressed state of mind and that may burst my emotions and passions because of the weighty calamity that struck me and my husband after losing our oldest son who was at the tender age of nineteen years....

On Saturday the 3rd of January 2004, my son and his cousin were travelling back to our residence in Samarra, they were driving a small cargo truck belonging to a third party from which they earn their livelihood in a country torn by wars and sanctions....

An American army patrol stood in their way, and after they went through the whole procedure of searching ... they tied them up both and led them to an area about three kilometres from the scene and... they ordered them to jump into the water, it was midnight and the cold was unbearable, when they hesitated, they were pushed by the soldiers. Unfortunately my boy cannot swim, even though swimming at this time of the year wouldn't have helped...

You can guess how this ends up.  Read the whole story here:

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But at least we painted a few of their schools and got their electricty going for a little while...