U.S. Marines and Bangladeshi soldier Nov. 23, 2007.
You may not have heard much about the November 16 cyclone in Bangladesh that killed hundreds, possibly even thousands, and destroyed entire towns. Even if you heard about the cyclone, you probably haven’t heard about the good work that U.S. Marines are doing to help the devastated country. Soon after the storm, bloggers reported that Islamist terrorist groups would provide considerable assistance to the victims, and some worried that the United States wouldn’t do enough to help the victims. On November 18, Counterterrorism Blog reported that, although the U.S. was sending Marines and other assistance, “The Islamists will take advantage of the tragedy to funnel money from rich donors around the world into the area to expand their existing social services while attracting grateful recruits. The U.S. and other Western countries will need to continue to deploy more assets and aid to counter the Islamists.” Although the tragedy has been covered very little in the mainstream media, bloggers aren’t ignoring the Marines’ efforts in Bangladesh. Marine Corps News has the details:
More from UPI and Breitbart. Although some Islamists were protesting the arrival of U.S. troops, Gateway Pundit has photo evidence that “the victims of the devastating cyclone did not seem to mind that the supplies were coming from the US.” It is important to note that the Marines’ goal is to truly help the people of Bangladesh, while the Islamist strategy seeks to gain recruits. According to 3rd World View, “we see that Hizbut Tahrir Bangladesh, a Branch of Hizbut Tahrir is protesting the arrival of US navy ships in Bangladesh. Hizbut Tahrir is an international, Sunni, pan-Islamist vanguard political party whose goal is to unite all Muslim countries in a unitary Islamic state or caliphate, ruled by Islamic law and headed by an elected head of state.” In short, the Marines aren’t the enemy–and the people of Bangladesh know it. Milibloggers Blackfive and Castle Argghhh! have more great coverage of our Marines’ assistance. As one commenter at Argghhh! remarked, “We as a country, or more properly our military, do amazing things, especially in these humanitarian efforts.”
