Touching, yes, but more revealing than anything:

Tankers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (search) knew that intelligence was key to battling the enemy. Capt. Chad Roehrman was at a checkpoint when he thought another dodgy informant walked up.

"One of my guys came to me and said, 'Hey, sir, we got another boy who says he has information,'" he said. What the boy had was information on a well-connected cell of 40 fighters whose leader was a former officer in Saddam Hussein's army. He was also the boy's father.

...After the bust the boy couldn't go home so he moved in with the soldiers. They gave him the nickname "Steve-O" and a bunk right next to theirs.

Buried with the last generation is the old way of life. Young Iraqis are the greatest hope for their own country as well as ours; unspoiled by cynicism and propaganda, eager to make the best friends the impoverished and oppressed could ever know. We owe them as much as they might think they owe us — no, far more.