When he got [to Iraq] he found things that he never would have imagined.  He found fulfillment.  He found support.  He found trust and he found friendship.  As a matter of fact, he quoted on his [MySpace] page one local who defined the difference between a terrorist and an American.  He said, “They get paid to take life, to murder and you get paid to save life.”  And he said that compliment meant more to him “than all the naysayers and makeshift humanists that monopolize our interpretation of this war.” 

You want to find the kind of people we have in Iraq?  This is it.

…

And what is going on in Iraq right now is our men and women are seeing folks there who have been subjected to eons of tyranny and suddenly the light’s going off and they’re beginning to see what freedom might mean and they’re beginning to see that the decency and honor and goodness of the American people is something they want to emulate.  Yeah, that happens!

As a matter of fact, in an email a little more than a month ago, our author said, “All is well.  More war stories than I can fit in this email.  Having the time of my life!”  Exclamation point!  And on the following day, Mark Daily was killed by an IED.  That’s what we lose.  But in that short time you had someone who had demonstrated through his deeds and his words and his character what it means to be an American.