It was mid-July and summer was in full swing, but for many parents across the US, back to school season was on the horizon. Half a world away, American soldiers deployed in Syria shared the same anticipation, albeit for dramatically different reasons. For scores of...
Dear supporters, Two weeks ago, we emailed you to tell you about an important project we’re supporting in Syria. This effort will help over 11,000 children in communities recently liberated from ISIS go back to school. It will significantly improve the students’...
Dear Supporters, I hope this finds all of you well. Over the last few weeks, it’s been a full plate for SoA in the Middle East. We’ve launched multiple projects across the region. Because of our organizational agility and ability to work with deployed troops and their...
Greetings, Spirit of America is working with US forces in northeast Syria to help children in areas recently liberated from ISIS control. We are providing school supplies and funding repairs so that children who have lived through the atrocities of ISIS rule and civil...
SoA has been active in Lebanon for the past two years, supporting multiple lines of effort aimed at bolstering the country's stability and security. Bordered by Syria and Israel and host to more than one million Syrian refugees, Lebanon holds a vital spot in the...
The second part of my recent trip to Syria had a more southerly focus. The US Army civil affairs team and I toured Ayn Isaa, a ghost town roughly 40 miles north of Raqqah, the capital of the Islamic State. Given the prevailing atmosphere of religious discord and...
Dear supporters, I recently traveled to Syria with a US Army team to explore ways SoA might be able to ease local suffering while furthering US objectives on the ground. I’ve been to Syria a number of times, but this trip in particular was different. I had the...
Despite the bloody conflicts roiling across both, my military flight from Iraq to northern Syria was a routine affair. I was traveling into Syria with three goals in mind: to meet with the US Army Civil Affairs teams, assess the humanitarian situation on the ground,...
Earlier this year I wrote an update about the incredibly heroic efforts of the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) in the outlying areas of Mosul. CTS is a primary US partner in the coalition against ISIS and, coincidentally, a force I advised some years ago. A...
