Abizaidmeeting

ASSOCIATION OF PATRIOTIC ARAB AMERICANS IN MILITARY
"Patriotic Arab Americans Making a Difference"

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VOICES of APAAM is a patriotic periodical that profiles the contributions of Arab Americans in the US Armed Forces.

For media contact email admin@apaam.org, and find out more about www.apaam.org

A Meeting From The Front

With

General John Abizaid

(pictured below)

Serving in the Middle East has been challenging, stressful, and most of the time hard. I sometimes wonder would I have been better off not volunteering for this duty considering that I have already served honorably as a Veteran with nothing more to prove to my country. I have been here exactly one year. I also served approximately one year for an operation in South America . I’ve been away from family, friends, McDonalds, AMC Theaters, and more for exactly two years now. When I do finally come home, I will have been gone from the country that I love for 2 and half years. I wonder sometimes if in the long run it will be worth it. I haven’t seen my parents in over a year. I miss driving from city to city, state to state talking to my fellow Americans as the Founder of APAAM without having to be pulled over continuously at road blocks and be scrutinized. I sometimes find myself going through sleepless nights because of stressful days due to our environment both at work and out in the local population.

We are human to feel this way sometimes, but overall we keep these negative feelings at bay because we are trained to have a positive mental attitude. Mostly because we have common sense to know that if we weren’t mentally prepared for the job that we volunteered for, that the freedom of our country would be threatened. We are willing to die for our country no matter what. We took the oath to protect our country against all enemies foreign and domestic.

I was having a bad day a few days ago thinking about things, and out of the blue, unannounced comes our Commander of Central Command, General John Abizaid. Talk about a shot in the arm. His presence and attitude made me come to reality really quick. I looked at him and thought about the bad days that he must have from shouldering the responsibility of the entire Middle East . It made my bad days seem insignificant next to his. He was so motivated and assertive about his position as the Commander and what the future holds for us who serve in the Middle East .

He and I talked in Arabic (he speaks very good Arabic) for about fifteen minutes about Middle East issues, family, background, and APAAM. He thanked APAAM for letting him become an Honorary Lifetime Member. He is so proud of his troops and said that he is very proud of Arab Americans serving in the Military. He also noted that he has met other APAAM members throughout his travels in the Middle East . I told him that he is our hero and a hero of the Arab American Communities.

It was an honor to meet him again. I could tell from the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice that the situations we face today in the Middle East will be looked back upon for us to say “Yes My Service was worth the Sacrifice”.

Seeing and talking to General Abizaid gives us all hope about serving in the Middle East . Why do we have hope? We are lead by a smart, motivated, and assertive leader who knows where he is taking us (his troops).

General John Abizaid Bio - http://www.apaam.org/sys-tmpl/generaljohnabizaid/

Gunnery Sergeant Jamal Baadani Bio - http://www.apaam.org/sys-tmpl/jamalbaadanistaffsergeant/