That's a good question. Are we supposed to send Arabic books? Other than a few English texts for language classes, why would a university in Iraq need books in English?

My current duty station recently asked for donations of school supplies to be sent to Iraqi schoolchildren. All well and good. So I bought a few small backpacks, some pencils, crayons, paper and other sundries and put them in the collection box. At a subsequent meeting, someone suggested writing notes to the children and putting them with the supplies. Ever the master of snark, I replied, "Dear Iraqi child, I'm sorry about all of the missiles I fired into your country. I hope they didn't kill anyone you knew. Anyway... have some crayons. Love, Sam". There was a brief silence, and the silly idea was dropped. Mission Accomplished. :-)