An amazing story from

Iraq

J's World, by Jeremiah Bartz

This week I had the opportunity to write the Frontiersman front-page Sunday feature on the experiences of a Wasilla native and former Mat-Su Valley athlete while stationed in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Without retelling the story, Isaac Moore, a 1995 Wasilla High School graduate and a Marine Corps officer recently stationed in Karbala, Iraq raised $7,000 for a struggling Iraqi wrestling program and competed in a dual meet with the Karbala wrestlers.

Since I have been in journalism, Moore's story is the finest that I have had the opportunity to write about.

It is simply an amazing story.

What strikes me the most is it is a positive reflection of American military action.

Unfortunately, more often than not what is reported is negative. Death and destruction normally make the front page and the negative is what is seen on the evening news and heard on the national news radio shows.

This is why a large chunk of the American public has such a negative interpretation of what American troops do overseas and why they are sent in the first place.

Moore said in his interview that 99-percent of what they do is positive. That is the message that the American public needs to hear.

We need to hear first-hand accounts of what military personnel like Moore are doing. We do not need to hear the latest celebrity that is bashing our leaders, and protesting the dangerous work of the American troops.

Moore's story also shows the importance of athletics on an international scale. Though the American wrestlers and the Karbala grapplers have many differences, they share one common bond-- a love for the sport.

That love bridged a tie between two cultures and Moore was able to aid a program with great significance to the culture in Karbala.

Jeremiah Bartz is the sports editor for the

Frontiersman. For more information on Moore and his story, see page A1.