An Innocent Heart

Anyone who has been to any third world country knows that there are a great many stray animals. Iraq is no different. Lonely soldiers often adopt these lost souls to be pets, companions and unit mascots which has led to a CENTCOM general order saying "Thou Shalt Not". The IA base I live on is no different, it has many many stray dogs. A lot of them have been cared for by IA soldiers, civilian workers who are away from home and lonely. Even a few U.S. units have their adopted animals to include our local SF unit who by their very existence are above all rules. I myself try to avoid all the animals looking for human companionship. I love them all too much. If I even allowed myself to acknowledge their presence It would be too much of an emotional commitment. As I mentioned, the local SF unit kept a stray. They named her Jundi and she hated Iraqis. Whenever Iraqis would come near her she would bark and make a ruckus. She had no problem with CF folks though, just Iraqis...Go figure! Jundi would also like to join in on our command PT. When we would circle up for calisthenics she would go nuts prancing and bouncing in our circle. This would absolutely infuriate the Colonel who was all about following the rules. We all found it pretty amusing, after all, Jundi was really a sweetheart. About a week ago the IA general who commands this base mandated that all the strays were to be destroyed and ordered the MPs out to shoot any dogs found. They were pretty sluggish about doing it because first off they have no shot guns and the conditions hafta be just about perfect to whack helpless doggies with and AK-47s on a populated base without causing "collateral damage". Secondly, Jundis don't like shooting cute dogs anymore than anyone else. The very next PT day after the Generals edict Jundi decided to come and enjoy our PT circled. We tried to shoo her off but she kept coming back. The Colonel called our Army Nurse officer to the side for a quiet word while we played soccer. She left and came back shortly. She sat down by the back goal, called Jundi and gave her a lethal injection. Jundi died as we played our game. A dark and cruel world claimed another innocent soul. I believe their is a very special place in hell for those who kill dogs unnecessarily. I also feel bad that I can't think of our Nurse as anything but LTC Puppy-Slayer. A couple of days ago I was at the base dump getting rid of some scrap and I came across the corpse of Jundi, bloated and fly covered, left among the other refuse. Jundi deserved better. She was a sweet and joyful heart. I studiously ignore them, I pretend that they aren't there but they still break my heart. It is even more difficult to harden my heart against the suffering of a simple dog than it is for another human being...Does that seem right to you?

TO THE TYRANT NEVER YIELD