Little George may look out of place in Baghdad, but it’s where he belongs — for the time being.

The wooden polar bear (sportily donning sunglasses against Iraq’s bright days) arrived with his 10th Mountain Division unit, the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, and sits next to the office of the battalion commander, Lt. Col. John Spiszer.

But the bear isn’t just cute or a handy place to hang sunglasses. There is history there, Spiszer explained.

Between 1918 and 1920, the regiment — then in the Philippines — was sent to defend the Trans-Siberian Highway from Russian revolutionaries, bandits and other nations. It was there the regiment earned the polar bear moniker.

The nickname stuck, and the polar bear is even part of the regiment’s flag and insignia.