Remembering the Children of Iraq
On this Memorial Day, we ought to reserve some room in our thoughts for the children of Iraq, and what we've done to them, stretching all the way back to the mid-90s, when hundreds of thousands of children under five died as a result of punishing US-led sanctions.
We did that. To children just like yours.
In the war itself, we've come to accept the killing and maiming of children, untold thousands of them (untold because we don't bother to count them), as routine, all in the cause of — of what? What cause justifies this brutality? To children. Inflicted by a self-proclaimed God-fearing nation.
And maybe worst of all, this brutality against children isn't limited to collateral damage. Much of it is actual US policy:
Under Bush’s leadership as commander in chief, the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan has been considering any male child in Iraq of age 14 or older to be a potential combatant. They have been treated accordingly—shot by US troops, imprisoned as "enemy combatants," and subjected to torture.
Before the US military's savage destruction of Fallujah, women and males considered to be non-combatants were allowed to leave. But (emphasis mine):
...males determined to be "of combat age," which in this case was established as 12 and up, were barred from leaving, and sent back into the city to await their fate. Young boys were ripped from their screaming mothers and sent trudging back to the city to face death.
In the ensuing slaughter, as the US dumped bombs, napalm, phosphorus, anti-personnel fragmentation weapons and an unimaginable quantity of machine gun and small arms fire on the city, it is clear that many of those young boys died.
Comments
This made me cry Anthony. I balled like a baby.
I had no idea about the male children aged 12. Sick shit indeed.
Posted by: Dusty | May 26, 2008 12:13 PM
Dusty, what we've done to the Iraqis is hard to comprehend. It's beyond words. Maybe that's why the MSM has spent so little time reporting on it.
Posted by: abi | May 26, 2008 01:25 PM
I didn't know about the 12-year-olds either. We're no better than the Nazis were.
Posted by: Kathy | May 27, 2008 06:23 PM
Kathy, did you ever think America would be capable of doing these things to kids?
Why the so-called liberal MSM doesn't express a barrage of outrage over these things is a mystery to me. I guess our kids are worth more than kids in Iraq.
Posted by: abi | May 28, 2008 06:25 AM
I read a recent review of Joseph Wambaugh's new book which calls for Bush to be tried for murder.
In addition, we need to disassemble our war machine that through our weapons makers and military is wreaking havoc in the world. We were so much better than that. Americans need to decide at this crossroads in time, do we continue to pursue our present course or are we ready to return to our former greatness. I'm not at this point very hopeful. Afterall, we can't even ban assault rifles from being sold in stores across America.
Posted by: Lev | May 28, 2008 07:03 AM
Lev, Vincent Bugliosi has also made a case for trying Bush as a murderer - and as a prosecutor, he never lost a murder trial.
You're absolutely right that we're at a crossroads. And like you, I'm not hopeful we'll take the right road. I think our former greatness is, at this point, more in the realm of reputation than reality.
Posted by: abi | May 28, 2008 09:07 AM
I guess our kids are worth more than kids in Iraq.
That sentence spells it out perfectly, Abi, but it goes beyond Iraqi children to other ones too, i.e black, Hispanic, poor, disabled, etc. The only really worthy children are those that don't cost our government any money.
Posted by: Kathy | May 28, 2008 02:37 PM