WHEN it comes to the Iraq war, it's harder than the Baghdad bedrock to find a heartwarming tale which unites people regardless of their political allegiances or feelings about the conflict.

But we might just have found one.

Utah woman Kaziah Hancock keeps 100 goats on a ranch near Manti, Utah, about 200 kilometres south of Salt Lake City.

Hancock calls herself "The Goat Woman", but goats are no longer the main thing which occupy her time.

A successful portrait and landscape artist, Kaziah Hancock started painting portraits of fallen Iraq servicemen three years ago.

It all started when she painted a portrait of Utah's first fallen soldier in the Iraq war. That portrait led to another, which led to another and another. She has now painted almost 250 portraits of fallen soldiers.

"There's nothing I'll ever paint that'll be more appreciated," she says. "It's a way to say 'I love you kiddo ... that you may never be forgotten'."

Hancock won't accept a cent for her artworks. She even packages up the portraits and pays for postage herself. She has a gallery in town where she sells her other artworks, so perhaps she doesn't need the money. The goats presumably bring in a dollar too.

But this isn't about money. This is about a big-hearted gesture by a woman who gets all the rewards she needs from the grateful relatives of the fallen.

Parents of the fallen soldiers say Hancock portrays the little details just right. The chipped teeth, the cheeky smirks.

That's quite a compliment given she works purely from photos. It's as though Hancock personally knew her subjects. As though she could see into their personalities and even their souls.

Hancock says she's not into politics. "I don't know how political I am. I don't get into all that crap. I just love freedom, OK?"

Though she may not realise it, Kaziah Hancock's project has done something even bigger than bringing joy to grieving families.

As the Iraq war begins to fade into America's rear vision mirror, and people remain divided as to its purpose and achievements, here is a woman who is being universally celebrated and embraced by every American who learns of her remarkable story.

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