I apologize if anyone has already posted something about this, but everyone in the nation should know about this. Copy and send this to everyone on your e-mail list.

Here is a celebrity who is actually using his fame to do some good in the world, not just partisan political antics like most other Hollywood celebrities. Read this and forward to everyone you know.

(as you all know, the mainstream media will never give this the time of day !!)

Actor Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump, Apollo 13) and author Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit: An American Legend) announce the launch of Operation Iraqi Children, a program that will enable Americans to send school supplies and Arabic translations of Seabiscuit to Iraqi children.

The Need. During and after Operation Iraqi Freedom, American soldiers passing through Iraqi villages were horrified at the squalor of Iraqi schools, which had been neglected under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Corralled in sweltering buildings without air conditioning, fans, windows, solid floors, or even toilets, Iraqi students lack even the rudimentary supplies that American children take for granted. Libraries are almost nonexistent. Without these basic tools of education, Iraqi children face an uphill struggle to learn. "Imagine sending your child to a school in which there are virtually no books, no pencils, no crayons, no paper," says Hillenbrand. "This is the reality for Iraqi children. The future of the Iraqi nation is being squandered for lack of basic school supplies."

Moved by the plight of these children, many American soldiers have taken it upon themselves to help. Working in small groups on their days off, soldiers scrounge up supplies and take them to villages, sometimes coming under fire as they work to reconstruct the schools and deliver learning tools to Iraqi kids. Their efforts have met with immense gratitude from local Iraqis and their children, who now have access to the basic tools of education for the first time in their lives. "I have seen Iraqi kids climbing on our soldiers and hugging them and kissing them," remembers Sinise, who recently accompanied Army soldiers to a severely dilapidated school they were rebuilding. "I have seen their smiling faces and their attempts to say , 'I love you' in broken English. The folks I saw had hope in their eyes and gratitude in their hearts for what was done for them."

Unfortunately, the need for help is so great and widespread, encompassing some 1,500 schools, that the soldiers' efforts cannot possibly answer the entire problem. "Our soldiers have freed the Iraqi nation from tyranny," says Hillenbrand. "We have an obligation to the Iraqi people, and to the men and women who gave their lives for this cause, to complete this mission by ensuring that Iraqis have the means to take advantage of their new freedom."

The Answer. Inspired by their conversations with Operation Iraqi Freedom soldiers as well as Sinise's recent tour of the region, Sinise and Hillenbrand founded Operation Iraqi Children to provide concerned Americans with a means to reach out to Iraqi kids and help support our soldiers' efforts to assist the Iraqi people. The operation consists of two programs:

* Through the school supplies program, American children can help their Iraqi counterparts by gathering school supplies in school-wide drives, then sending them to a military base in Iraq, where our soldiers will take them to Iraqi villages.

* Through the Seabiscuit program, operated through Thoroughbred Charities of America, Americans can make tax-deductible donations that will be used to purchase very low cost Arabic translations of the best-selling book Seabiscuit: An American Legend. This program is fully non- profit; 100% of donations will go to purchase books, and all author royalties will be reinvested in more books for the children. Like the school supplies, Arabic copies of Seabiscuit will be delivered to Iraqi schoolchildren by U.S. military personnel.

Sinise, Hillenbrand and the organizers of Operation Iraqi Children believe that this program can help more than the Iraqi children. By bringing Americans and Iraqis together and demonstrating American devotion to the welfare of the Iraqi people, the program can foster understanding and goodwill between our nations. "Every time a book or a box of school supplies is delivered by our troops it will be another small victory for them in helping win the minds and hearts of the Iraqis," says Sinise. "It is a beautiful way to begin a relationship with the future leaders of Iraq. They have been forgotten for so long. Now there is a chance for them."