A symbol of gratitude to President Bush

Betsy Newmark and the Anchoress pick up this story from the Southern, a newspaper in southern Illinois:

photo credit: Steve Jahnke, the Southern

One of those friendships involved a Kabul rug merchant who pulled Gile aside before he left the country. The merchant told Gile the story of an elderly man, so overwhelmed with gratitude to the United States for its intervention in the conflict that he made a gift for President Bush - a gift that was a year in the making and made, given the conditions of the country, under penalty of death.

Gile was astonished when he saw the hand-knotted rug, a portrait of Bush, filled with Christian and Catholic symbolism. Filling the center of the rug is an incredible likeness of Bush, dressed in religious vestments, standing at a podium decorated with the official seal of the country and flanked by two waving American flags.

Directly above Bush is Jesus with a sacred heart and stigmata carefully knotted into the rug's pattern. The rug also shows cherubs and, apparently in an homage to both Bush and a fallen Northern Alliance leader, two lions.

"(Ahmed Shah) Masood was often called 'the Lion of Panjshir.' As one of the country's military leaders, he put some very, very heavy licks to the Soviets and then turned around and delivered the same to the Taliban," Gile said. "He was assassinated two days before 9/11."

One corner of the rug reads, "President George W. Bush," while the opposing corner has the words, "Number one champion."

Gile said he was impressed by the man's efforts.

"For this man to sequester himself away for a year to hand knot this rug speaks highly of his gratitude," he said. "And for an extraordinarily devout Muslim to have taken very strong Christian and Catholic symbology and incorporate them into the rug is amazing. He may come from a different religious culture, but he was respectful enough to do that, and that is very interesting and humbling."

Indeed. This really is the mission of America - to free people who are cruelly oppressed, while ensuring our national security. Yes, our security is the primary goal, but America has always had a big enough heart that it is never our only goal.

I truly hope that Grayson Gile, who recieved the rug and accepted the mission of presenting it to President Bush, is successful in his mission.

And somewhere in Afghanistan, a man who now lives free will have the satisfaction of knowing that the leader of the free world knows that someone is thankful for the strength and determination of the United States of America.