This could not happen anywhere else

Lisa Hoffman tells us some stories that you could not possibly read about happening in any other country on this earth.

U.S. Army Spcs. Wai Lwin and Azhar Ali.

As they turned onto a bridge along the road to Baghdad's airport, a bomb detonated near their vehicle, killing the two instantly. One was a Buddhist born in Burma, the other a Muslim from Pakistan.

Army Pfc. Min Choi.

Killed Feb. 26, less than a month after he arrived in Iraq, in a bomb attack while he was on patrol. Choi was a Korean immigrant from River Vale, N.J.. "My son said he needed to serve our country," Choi's father, Jong Choi, told a Westchester, N.Y., newspaper

Marine Lance Cpl. Tenzin Dengkim, of Falls Church, Va..

Dengkim, a rifleman-scout, was killed April 2 in a firefight in Haditha, Iraq. Dengkim, 19, was the son of a single Tibetan mother, who had fled her homeland for asylum in India. In 1992, he and his mother were permitted to immigrate to Utah as refugees.

He had said he also hoped to learn the military skills he could one day use to help Tibet find religious and other freedoms.

Army Spc. Uday Singh, 21.

Killed during an ambush on his Humvee patrol near Habbaniyah. At his cremation in India, he was dressed in his Army uniform and draped with the U.S. flag.

He decided he wanted to live in America at age 16 while on a visit from his India home to his aunt and uncle in Lake Forest, Ill. A fan of fast cars and war movies, Singh also dreamed of becoming a respected military man like his Sikh father and grandfather and, later, as a successful American businessman.

Army Sgt. Pamela Osbourne, 38.

Shrapnel from a rocket attack on her camp in Baghdad killed her.

She came to America from Jamaica when she was 14 with two dreams - to become a U.S. citizen and to join the military. Once in the Army, she developed a medical condition that could have kept her out of war duty, but the mother of three from Hollywood, Fla., was determined to serve her adopted country and insisted on going.

Marine Cpl. Binh Le, 20.

He was killed when a suicide truck packed with explosives attacked his checkpoint. Putting himself at deadly risk, Le fired at the truck, keeping it far enough away when it exploded to spare many innocent lives. His commander has recommended him for the Silver Star.

He came from Vietnam at the age of six to live with his aunt and uncle in Alexandria, Va.. He had already served one tour in Iraq when he volunteered for a second. The son of a former South Vietnamese army soldier.

Sgt. Rafael Peralta, 25.

A platoon scout who didn't have to go on the dangerous Nov. 15 mission, Peralta volunteered to join five Marines hunting insurgents house-to-house in Fallujah.

In their fourth house of the morning, three enemy fighters waited behind a closed door. When Peralta opened it, he was hit in the head and chest by a close-up fusillade of AK-47 fire. His Marine mates fought on, until one of the insurgents rolled a grenade toward Peralta, who lay bleeding on the floor.

To save his nearby comrades, Peralta reached for the explosive and, with seconds to spare, tucked it under his stomach to take the full force of the blast.

He was the only one of the five Marines to die.

He joined the Marines the day after he got the "Green Card" that made him a legal resident.

What do all of these soldiers and Marines have in common that you and I can never have in common? They were not citizens of The United States. They were immigrants, green card holders, resident aliens.

Since the Revolutionary War the US armed forces have permitted, no, welcomed non-citizen residents. It is a heritage from our founding.

In all, more than 40,000 non-citizens from more than 100 countries are now in uniform. About 8,000 sign up each year, according to Pentagon and immigration statistics.

At least 110 U.S. immigrant-soldiers who have perished in Iraq, according to a Scripps Howard News Service casualty database. More than half of these war dead were not even American citizens when they gave their lives for the country.

At last count, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it had naturalized at least 59 U.S. troops after they died in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

You know, I think that this is the real reason that "they" hate us. Such a thing would not be possible in their countries. This is why we are so much stronger and will continue to become stronger while "they" wallow in their self pity and dreams of a caliphate that never was.
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