Do you know who IS still working in Iraq?

[underpants]

(aside from our soldiers)

FIREMEN! There really is something special about those guys, and girls.

-see pic below-

Even as the bombs started dropping last year there were images of Iraqi firemen still on the job, doing what they could with ruptured water lines and all hell breaking loose.

On and after 9/11 we in this country we gained a renewed appreciation of firemen. They aren't as visible on a daily basis as police officers are (unless they roar by you on the way to a fire or rescue) so we tend to forget about them...until we need them. We saw in those days the incredible dedication and loyalty of the NYFD as well as others who came streaming into NYC to help out.

I have no idea if the Iraqi firemen got paid during the worst of the bombing and fires or if they are now ( I suspect now they are) but I mentioned to my wife how it was amazing that it is like you just plucked the same people up and dropped them in Iraq.

Amazing.



An Iraqi fireman sprays water on burned out cars following deadly bomb blast at a crowded market close to a police station in central Baghdad, September 14, 2004. A militant group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said one of its suicide bombers carried out Tuesday's attack in which some 47 people died, according to an Internet statement. (Aladin Abdel Naby/Reuters)