New Yorker of the year 

Monday, December 17th 2007, 4:00 AM 

 

Editorial

"Don't know when I am going home, but it's not any time soon," Clouden told us last week. "I love my job, and I reenlisted for four more years." 

That's a soldier. 

An American soldier. 

A soldier to whom this country gratefully owes much. 

As it does to all his brothers and sisters in uniform who have served from the start in Iraq and on the often-overlooked battlefields of Afghanistan. 

Among those heroic volunteers are legions of New Yorkers - whom today we honor collectively as the Daily News 2007 New Yorker of the Year. 

No one put more at risk. No one asked for less in return. No one made more profound sacrifices. No one did more for the city, the state, the nation. No one made a greater difference. 

U.S. troops have been in Afghanistan for six years, since shortly after 9/11, and in Iraq since 2003. They have done whatever commanders have asked, no matter how dangerous, no matter how wise, no matter how bitterly politicians debated whether to fund the war in Iraq or questioned progress in Afghanistan. 

And this year, the Iraq brigades got the right general in David Petraeus and the smarter strategy that came with him. The Pentagon's misguided top-down tactics gave way to bottom-up heroism. As a result, today's fighting forces stand tall on the shoulders of the hundreds of thousands who held the field before them. 

They stand on the shoulders of men like Staff Sgt. Jorma Fitje, a city correction officer and Marine from Starrett City, Brooklyn. He had fulfilled his military commitment by mid-2001. Then came 9/11. He re-upped and helped train Iraqi police, posted in Ramadi and Fallujah. 

And men like Staff Sgt. Pasquale Foresta, a Marine from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and a city firefighter. Two men he trained with for the FDNY died on 9/11. He went to Iraq in 2003, as a radio operator attached to British units fighting in Basra. Now he's preparing for his second deployment. We reached him in Quantico, Va.

 

"My mom worries," he admitted. 

The extraordinary contributions of these warriors and their comrades are paying off. American casualties have fallen, as have Iraqi deaths. Al Qaeda in Iraq is on the run, and Sunni-Shiite violence is waning. Refugees have streamed home. 

Meanwhile, it's true, Afghanistan has become more dangerous: Attacks are up 30% this year, as the Taliban and Al Qaeda are gunning for a comeback. 

Thus our troops are doing everything they can, indefatigably, to give that fledgling democracy a chance. Among those headed for Afghanistan today are members of New York's Army National Guard, the Fighting 69th. 

The price of this brutally hard work has been steep. The U.S. has lost 3,900 young lives in Iraq and nearly 500 in Afghanistan. New York City's toll stands at 65 soldiers, airmen and Marines in Iraq and seven in Afghanistan. 

They were poor and middle class, immigrants and native-born Americans. They were products of public schools, Catholic schools and colleges. Most were young men in their 20s. 

This year, they had surnames like Alcantara, Calero, Colon, Cortes, Montenegro, Ritzberg, Rivadeneira, Rivera, Vidhyakorn, Watt, Wilson. One lost his mother at age 9 and worked his way out of homelessness and into the military. One left a 6-month-old daughter. Another had been accepted into college just two days before an IED stole his future. 

Many dead. Many wounded. 

Lance Cpl. Ishmael Althaibani, a Marine from Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, is among the wounded. Fluent in Arabic, Althaibani went to Iraq in 2004 and fought in that year's battle at Fallujah. In the thick of combat, he was in a convoy on its way to pick up prisoners for questioning. An IED hit. 

Althaibani sustained injuries to his face and left foot. He was awarded the Purple Heart. And if he could return to the battlefield? "I would," he told us. 

It is often said we are fighting "a different kind of war." The enemy rarely wears a uniform and takes pleasure killing innocents. 

All true. But there's another reason the two biggest fronts in the global war on terror - Iraq and Afghanistan - are unlike any in modern times. 

That reason: America can, if it so wishes, compartmentalize the pain. It can compartmentalize the sacrifice. Because there's no draft. Less than 2% of the U.S. population has put on a uniform since 9/11. Less than 1% has deployed. These men and women are all at war not because they were dragged to it but because they stood up when duty called. 

But we make this merely their war - not our common, national struggle - at our peril. 

On this day, we are proud to recognize our New Yorkers of the Year. And we are honored to salute them, every one.Our troops are doing everything they can, indefatigably, to give that fledgling democracy a chance.getty images