In one of his reports from Iraq, Edd talked about praying over an unnamed� soldier he helped lift into a med evac helicopter after an ambush:

We ran as fast as we could through the dark night 200 yards toward the roar of the med evac chopper with the transport vehicle following.

The med evac crew was on the ground working with the Navy Corpsmen to get all the information on the wounded. � I helped Staff Sergeant Watson check the names on the list as he double checked the names, injuries, and priority order.

The Marine with the headwound last name began with a “B” but I couldn’t hear the full name in the roar and thump thump of the Blackhawks turning rotor.

I prayed “Lord you know his name – I lift him up and ask you to spare his life and heal him. � Father you are the Great Physcian – heal and comfort them all and give those who care them and transport them supernatural abilities to your greater Glory.”�

Now it was time to take Marine “B” to the chopper – but they needed help. � I had the honor of carrying this brave wounded Marine to the med evac. We lifted on the count of 3 – and moved smoothly under the terrific roar and beat of the Blackhawk’s rotor.

The soldier didn’t make it.

Now we know his name:

A 23-year-old Martinsville, Va., police officer and reservist was one of four Marines killed yesterday when their convoy was ambushed in Iraq, city officials and friends said.�

A day before his death, Jonathan W. Bowling telephoned his girlfriend, Tonya McFarling, twice and sent an e-mail card to wish her a happy 26th birthday, McFarling’s mother said last night. Earlier yesterday, Bowling’s father called the McFarlings with the news, which had not yet been released to the media by the Department of Defense.�

He was "just a real wonderful person . . . just like a son to us. It’s just beyond any words," Velma McFarling said in a telephone interview. "This war is just tearing so many lives up."�

Bowling had followed the career path of his father, Darrell Bowling, a Virginia State Police master trooper, and joined the Martinsville police in December 2002, city officials said. The 2000 graduate of Patrick County High School in Stuart received an associate’s degree in administration of justice at Patrick Henry Community College in 2002.�

Police officials said Bowling wanted to become a state trooper but promised to spend at least three years on the Martinsville force. Police Chief Mike Rogers described Bowling as a polite, courteous, disciplined officer who came to work with a positive attitude each day.�

"I told his father and several more people in the state police I was doing them a big favor by helping train someone who was going to be one of their best in the future," Rogers said in a statement.

In a telephone interview last night, Rogers said: "Jonathan Bowling was the kind of man that you would want as a son-in-law. He was just clean-cut."�

Bowling, who had joined the Marine Reserve in 2000, was trained as a combat engineer. He was called to active duty last year and reported to the Marine Corps on June 1. The ambush yesterday occurred in Anbar province, the Associated Press reported.�

After almost a year of dating, Bowling and Tonya McFarling had talked about marriage, her mother said, but Bowling had told his girlfriend that "he wanted to go and do his duty for his country." He "loved the Lord," Velma McFarling said, and he was a church elder.�

A woman who answered the phone at the Bowling family home last night and said she was Jonathan Bowling’s stepmother said the family was unable to be interviewed.

Bowling is survived by his father and his stepmother; his mother, Robin Feron; and twin sisters, Brooke Elizabeth Bowling and Ashley Blair Bowling, officials said.�

(Hat-tip: Washington Post)

John Zogby, who has become a well known and respected pollster in America, was hired to do polling in Iraq. Of all of the questions he asked, the answers to two questions were especially interesting.

Question: What country would you most like Iraq to be like?

37% United Arab Emirates. This group of small countries, that includes Dubai and Abu Dhabi, is very western like in it’s culture. The cities are modern and western. They welcome tourists from across the world. These countries are not democratic in the way that America is, but they have been the most open of Arab nations in the region.

16% America

These top two selections, 53%, illustrate that the people of Iraq want to move away from the Islamic fundamentalism of the past. They want to keep their religion, but not be ruled by it. They want to join the modern and it could be said, the western world.

Next question: Should Iraqis be free to choose their religion?

62% said that there should be religious freedom in Iraq and that people should be able to choose their own faith. This number directly ties into the first question and demostrates once again that Iraqi people do not want to live under any type of fundamentalist rule.

The election and the results of this poll are encouraging to all who want to live in peace and enjoy freedom. It is also a major blow to the teachings of Osam Bin Laden and his followers. These examples show that Bin Laden does not reflect the view of the majority of Muslims and Arabs.