Edited for brevity.
Across Iraq and Kuwait, U.S. troops are rescuing beaten, starving and homeless dogs, lavishing them with TLC and crediting the mutts with making their long months at war bearable, even joyful at times. A common refrain from soldiers is that the dogs are the best things that happened to them at war, providing as they do an incalculable morale boost for entire units. When a mongrel puppy wandered into his tent last fall, one Army sergeant said the effect was immediate and jarring. "When I saw him, I smiled. ... I smiled so big and I realized that I haven’t smiled in 5 months," the sergeant wrote on a Web posting from Iraq. At least two-dozen soldiers have become so attached to their canine comrades that they have wangled a way to bring them back to America, aided by a remarkable civilian volunteer effort in the United States, Europe and the Middle East that helps with logistics and costs.
But the military forbids transporting pets from Iraq, and soldiers now report the brass is cracking down, calling for the enforcement of "General Order One," a long-standing military prohibition against even feeding or caring for animals, much less adopting them. Concern for the safety and health of the troops is the rationale. On top of that, the primary route for spiriting the U.S.-bound animals out of Iraq _ 10 hours by road across the western Iraqi desert to Jordan_ is now shut. Worried about health risks, the Jordanian government is refusing to allow any more dogs in, even though the animals are there only temporarily, remain confined and have clean bills of health. These developments are triggering panicky, middle-of-the-night calls for help to U.S. animal advocates from heartbroken GIs, who say they are being told to either find Iraqi homes for their furry sidekicks or turn them loose to the miserable conditions from which they were rescued. Or have the dogs destroyed. |