US veteran speaks out against 'Muslim ban' with incredible Iraq story

There's no doubt we're living in troubling times, but US veteran's story has been warming hearts all over the internet.

Dylan Park-Pettiford shared a story on Twitter, Saturday, about an Iraqi boy named Brahim, who he met during his first deployment to the war-torn nation. The moving thread has been retweeted well over 58,000 times.

Since then, Park-Pettiford told Mashable via Messenger he shared the story to help speak up against Trump's immigration ban.

"The response was totally unexpected. If I would've known it would go viral I probably would have proofread my threads before tweeting it," he said.

As the son of a Korean orphan and the grandson of a man murdered in an extreme act of racism, Park-Pettiford thinks "We've gone 50 years back in time in less than two weeks."

He continued: "I'm absolutely disgusted in the direction this country is heading in. F*k Donald Trump. I'm going to use every opportunity I can to speak out against him."

In terms of speaking out (and melting hearts), his story takes the cake.

Long story short, Brahim was a kid volunteered to be Park-Pettiford's interpreter in Iraq.

[embed]https://twitter.com/dyllyp/status/825397560126824448[/embed]

For Brahim, volunteering would guarantee refugee status in the US, and it was one of the sole sources of income for him and the seven people he lived with in a one-bedroom house. A gift of soap was enough to make Brahim cry on one occassion.

Brahim would be Park-Pettiford's liaison for the next year, providing intel which helped save their lives - twice. All at the age of 16.

But their partnership came to an abrupt end.

"At the end of my tour in Iraq, I knew I was leaving him to die. I knew I'd never see him again. Was just kinda like 'take care kid,'" Park-Pettiford wrote on Twitter.

Read the full article here.

 

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