By the dawn’s early light.

By the dawn's early light --- ‘A tribute to the men and women in the
armed forces' ---- By Billy Jack 

We'd invaded Iraq with a flurry of men and heavy weaponry, and several
days later we moved in towards the capital, and after a fierce battle
we took control of Bagdad. We'd lost nearly half of our squad to the
insurgents, and I'd lost six of my very closest friends. I was madder
than hell and I was ready to kill anything that even remotely looked
hostile. I was so hurt by our losses that I wanted to kill ten
insurgents for each friend that fell by the hands of the most evil men
on earth. 

To add salt to Saddam's wounds we, the United States Army, took over
Sadams Royal palace in the heart of Bagdad, and we made ourselves at
home. We took over his many big elaborate bedrooms, we swam in his
heated pool, and we went through his personal items that he didn't have
time to take, and we moved through the palace as if we'd always been
there. We made sure the television crews filmed us in his rooms and
pools in hopes that he'd see them when it was televised. We wanted him
to come out of hiding so we could end the world of his tyranny. 

"Sergeant Byre," the commander said to me as he moved over to where I
stood, "You need to get some sleep. Tonight I want you to take a squad
and check out areas that we can't check out in the daytime. We got a
good supply of night vision goggles in earlier this morning to help
your search. Don't take any chances, if any hostility is displayed
shoot to kill. There are a lot of insurgents still in the city. Hell
it'll take months to weed them out." 

"Yes sir," I said as I stood to move off to one of the unoccupied
bedrooms. "Would you have someone wake me when it's time to move out?" 

I moved upstairs to find an empty bed so that I could get a few hours
sleep before I once again had to put my life on the line. 

The captain decided to let the palaces working staff stay at the palace
to go on with their normal duties. Most of them lived in the palace,
and if we kicked them out they'd have no place to go. There were nearly
one hundred young women who cared for the palace upkeep, and there were
more than a dozen cooks on staff. The only difference was that now they
worked for us. 

Before I moved up to my room I asked one of the cooks to fix me a nice
juicy steak and some potatoes and have it sent to my room. While I
looked over the map of the city to decide on which areas were to be
considered as hot spots, several of the women came to clean my room and
turn down the sheets while I ate my meal. 

I couldn't believe how good looking the Iraqi women were. On the
television news clips I'd seen they all looked old, but two of the
three in my room were hotter than hot, and the third wasn't ugly, she
just wasn't in the same league as the other two. I couldn't keep my
eyes off of them while I scarfed down my meal. I wished I spoke Iraqi.
Then maybe I could have flirted with them and tried to get laid. 

When I finished my meal I didn't wait until the women left the room, I
was so tired that I stripped down and climbed into bed. When I looked
over after I pulled the sheets up over me I noticed that they had been
watching me strip. The youngest of the three, maybe nineteen years old,
couldn't pull her eyes away of me. 

After the room was clean the two older looking ladies left the room and
the youngest one moved up to me and started to speak to me in her
Arabic tongue. 

"أريد أن
أبين لكم عن
امتناني
لإنقاذ لنا," she
said in a language I wasn't familiar with. 

"I can't understand you," I told her as I looked apologetic in her eyes.
"I don't understand the Iraqi language.

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