We would bring in a thousand Iraqi students every ten weeks. They received basic law enforcement training for eight weeks and then two weeks of officer survival training. We break them up into groups of thirty. I would be in a classroom with thirty to thirty-two police cadets, from ages eighteen to thirty-five. Saddam had terrorized Iraq for thirty-five years, so even the oldest ones in the course had known nothing but tyranny. No one remembered freedom.
I got to know them pretty well over the ten weeks. The last week right before they were to graduate you could sense how thrilled they were about their accomplishment. We did not graduate everybody. Many had trouble finishing their commitment. But for others, the sense of accomplishment was genuine.
Just before graduation I would go around the classroom and call them by name, and I would tell them that they may not be policemen their whole life. I would ask them what they wanted to get out of life. They would answer, “Mr. Skip all I want is safety and security for my family.” They weren’t looking to get rich. They weren’t looking for retirement. They just wanted to be able to live their lives with security. I would tell them that in a democracy anything was possible. They may start a business or go to school. They had truly accomplished something, and now they were going to give back to their community.
The people over there have the same interest that we do with democracy and liberty. They want to live their lives in a safe environment. What we are doing over there is a worthy cause. We’re helping them help themselves. The naysayers that say we need to leave have no idea of what we’re doing over there.
Dear Lord, never let us forget that with freedom comes great privilege and great responsibility. Where tyranny reigns, bring freedom. Where oppression thrives, bring liberation and justice and peace.
“I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.” (Ezekiel 22:30)