One way to get support for the troops
An American GI assigned to one of the harshest posts in Iraq had a simple request last week for a Wisconsin mattress company: send some floor mats to help ease the hardship of sleeping on the cold, bug-infested ground.
What he got, instead, was a swift kick from the company’s Web site, which not only refused the request but added insult to injury with the admonition, “If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.”
Army Sgt. Jason Hess, stationed in Taji, Iraq, with the 1st Cavalry Division, said he emailed his request to Discount-mats.com because he and his fellow soldiers sleep on the cold ground, which contains sand mites, sand flies and other disease carriers.
What a simple request.
In his email, dated Jan. 16, 2007, he asked the company, registered to Faisal Khetani, an American Muslim of Pakistani descent:
“Do you ship to APO (military) addresses? I’m in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some mats but we are looking for ships to APO first.”
He was loooking for a yes or no reply, basically. If yes, he would have placed the order for…what?….just mats. Mats that could be one more thin layer on the ground between them and the bugs and the dirt out there on the battlefield. The bugs and the dirt are frankly just about the least of their problems in that danger zone. But it was at least one they hoped they could control.
Instead…
On the same day, Hess received this reply:
“SGT Hess,
We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.
Bargain Suppliers
Discount-Mats.com”
Now how sensible does that make Khetani appear? He learned the lesson–or at least how much support these troops really do have from the American people–when the media got hold of this email correspondence.
That link at the top was from Fox News’ website earlier. It has already been updated, with this addition:
Discount-Mats.com is run out of Khetani’s home in West Allis, Wis. In a telephone interview Tuesday with FOX News, Khetani said he had fired the employee who sent the email, a claim that FOX News has not been able to confirm. He also said he has received thousands of phone calls to his home and business from people protesting the email exchange.
Hess said that he has since found two mat suppliers who shipped to an APO address in Iraq.
But he found so much more.
Meanwhile, FOX News has received thousands of emails asking how to donate mats and other items to U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
That’s great. People are so quick to respond. Beyond this kind of support, the troops are in need of some basic supplies.
Rob Timmons, an Iraq veteran and a veteran outreach coordinator, recommended the following Web sites:
