On a day when the nation doesn't know whether to get more riled up about all the hateful vibes in town from the Axis of Evil or hate hailing from our own ignorant teenage filth, it's good to have a reminder that, at the very least, America's troops in Iraq still retain the conscience to fly in the face of policy and Do Unto Others. As long as those others are dogs! See, military bases in Iraq attract stray dogs, because they throw out a lot of food that stray dogs are too dumb to be afraid to scavenge; and the so the military has been forced to kill them to fight the dog overpopulation problem, but according to a story in today's Wall Street Journal, a handful of brave troops have formed a veritable Underground Railroad for dogs, hiding strays in closets and giving entire litters fake Military "force protection" designations allowing them to stay:
Following the rule change, Capt. Cooley says he quickly filed paperwork registering Barrett and Springfield as force-protection dogs.
Sweet-natured and weighing less than 40 pounds each, the mixed-breed puppies didn't appear capable of protecting much of anything. But soldiers on the base say the dogs earned their titles in August when a large section of one of the outpost's walls caved in shortly after midnight, leaving the compound potentially vulnerable to intruders.
The soldiers say Barrett and Springfield, then about four months old, stood by the collapsed wall and barked until U.S. soldiers woke up and found the opening.
Yeah, okay: Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww. That is all.
A Base Goes To The Dogs [WSJ]