"Shit happens" - iraq

[starvingeyes]

just thought i'd post this for all of you who've casually dismissed civillian casualties in iraq as "shit happening"

speech given at a peace rally in maine.

by XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (12 year old girl)

When people think about bombing Iraq, they see a picture in their heads of Saddam Hussein in a military uniform, or maybe soldiers with big black mustaches carrying guns, or the mosaic of George Bush Sr. on the lobby floor of the Al-Rashid Hotel with the word “criminal”. But guess what? More than half of Iraq’s 24 million people are children under the age of 15. That’s 12 million kids. Kids like me. Well, I’m almost 13, so some are a little older, and some a lot younger, some boys instead of girls, some with brown hair, not red. But kids who are pretty much like me just the same. So take a look at me—a good long look. Because I am what you should see in your head when you think about bombing Iraq. I am what you are going to destroy.

If I am lucky, I will be killed instantly, like the three hundred children murdered by your “smart” bombs in a Baghdad bomb shelter on February 16, 1991. The blast caused a fire so intense that it flash-burned outlines of those children and their mothers on the walls; you can still peel strips of blackened skin—souvenirs of your victory—from the stones.

But maybe I won’t be lucky and I’ll die slowly, like 14-year-old Ali Faisal, who right now is on the “death ward” of the Baghdad children’s hospital. He has malignant lymphoma—cancer—caused by the depleted uranium in your Gulf War missiles. Or maybe I will die painfully and needlessly like18-month-old Mustafa, whose vital organs are being devoured by sand fly parasites. I know it’s hard to believe, but Mustafa could be totally cured with just $25 worth of medicine, but there is none of this medicine because of your sanctions.

Or maybe I won’t die at all but will live for years with the psychological damage that you can’t see from the outside, like Salman Mohammed, who even now can’t forget the terror he lived through with his little sisters when you bombed Iraq in 1991. Salman’s father made the whole family sleep in the same room so that they would all survive together, or die together. He still has nightmares about the air raid sirens.

Or maybe I will be orphaned like Ali, who was three when you killed his father in the Gulf War. Ali scraped at the dirt covering his father’s grave every day for three years calling out to him, “It’s all right Daddy, you can come out now, the men who put you here have gone away.” Well, Ali, you’re wrong. It looks like those men are coming back.

Or I maybe I will make it in one piece, like Luay Majed, who remembers that the Gulf War meant he didn’t have to go to school and could stay up as late as he wanted. But today, with no education, he tries to live by selling newspapers on the street.

Imagine that these are your children—or nieces or nephews or neighbors. Imagine your son screaming from the agony of a severed limb, but you can’t do anything to ease the pain or comfort him. Imagine your daughter crying out from under the rubble of a collapsed building, but you can’t get to her. Imagine your children wandering the streets, hungry and alone, after having watched you die before their eyes.

This is not an adventure movie or a fantasy or a video game. This is reality for children in Iraq. Recently, an international group of researchers went to Iraq to find out how children there are being affected by the possibility of war. Half the children they talked to said they saw no point in living any more. Even really young kids knew about war and worried about it. One 5-year-old, Assem, described it as “guns and bombs and the air will be cold and hot and we will burn very much.” Ten-year-old Aesar had a message for President Bush: he wanted him to know that “A lot of Iraqi children will die. You will see it on TV and then you will regret.”

Back in elementary school I was taught to solve problems with other kids not by hitting or name-calling, but by talking and using “I” messages. The idea of an “I” message was to make the other person understand how bad his or her actions made you feel, so that the person would sympathize with you and stop it. Now I am going to give you an “I” message. Only it’s going to be a “We” message. “We” as in all the children in Iraq who are waiting helplessly for something bad to happen. “We” as in the children of the world who don’t make any of the decisions but have to suffer all the consequences. “We” as in those whose voices are too small and too far away to be heard.

We feel scared when we don’t know if we’ll live another day.

We feel angry when people want to kill us or injure us or steal our future.

We feel sad because all we want is a mom and a dad who we know will be there the next day.

And, finally, we feel confused … because we don’t even know what we did wrong.

[Corey]

What this 12 year old girl doesn't understand is that the Iraqi children don't need our help. I present to you my favorite article to date:

http://www.holonet.khm.de/visual_alchem ... ldren.html

Back in elementary school I was taught to solve problems with other kids not by hitting or name-calling, but by talking and using “I” messages. The idea of an “I” message was to make the other person understand how bad his or her actions made you feel, so that the person would sympathize with you and stop it. Now I am going to give you an “I” message. Only it’s going to be a “We” message. “We” as in all the children in Iraq who are waiting helplessly for something bad to happen. “We” as in the children of the world who don’t make any of the decisions but have to suffer all the consequences. “We” as in those whose voices are too small and too far away to be heard.

I wonder what the Iraqi children are taught? hmmm... oh yes.. To hate America. It is government sanctioned material. Why else do you think the little kids tell such horrible stories? It's from what they are taught in their propaganda laced education.

[starvingeyes]

i don't think this girl is an iraqui national. i think she's an american citizen of iraqui descent.

and the only proof that iraqui children are taught to hate america in school is the assertion of the war machine goons. a friend of mine was just in bagdhad for a couple of weeks and posted his adventures on http://www.devo.com/mideastlog

he talked to many iraqui people and i don't recall reading about anyone shouting "jihad" or anything that fits the pseudo-rascist bullshit the right wing disinformation machine spews.

[Corey]

That's nice... how about reading testimony from people who have actually lived there:

http://www.house.gov/lantos/caucus/Test ... 112002.htm

[starvingeyes]

confirmed what i areadly know:

a. saddam is an asshole [ surprise surprise. a politician who is an asshole? ]
b. iraq is a shit hole.
c. sanctions suck.
d. this iraqui kurd wrote that huge testimony without shouting out "jihad" or calling anybody "the great satan" even one time.

[Sufjan Stevens]

I don't get this. Corey, do you actually support the war, or just like to talk about politics with these guys?

[Bandalero]

quite interesting.

first off, i think it's wrong for a 12 year old girl to know what a sanction is. i might have been ignorant at age 12, but i didn't know that word. someone should really tell her that Iraqi Oil is to be traded for humanitarian aid. 60% of oil imported from Iraq is sent to the US. In return we send food, medicine, and other aid. why isn't it on the shelves? why didn't that kid get the $25 worth of medicine? cause instead of going to that child it probably was sold somewhere at a higher price. or even worse, wasn't given to the kid, because his parents couldn't afford the price that Iraqi officials put on it. furthermore, i want a stat that says that 1/2 of the poplation in Iraq is children. she probably got this source from a world book or encyclopedia...that's where i want this stat from.

what's facinating is that it sounds like these people don't move anywhere. yet on the television the other day, i saw a group of kuwaity men, who gathered their wives and children, set up a tent and lived out in the desert because Iraqi troops invaded. again...i stress, keep away from military positions. war isn't error proof, things that are horrible are going to happen in every war, and war will always happen as long as there are two people on this planet. in today's wars, those things are not intentional, and the only true way to be completely sure of not becomming a casualty is by moving away from the areas.

i love that idea of I messages. i really think it's awsome the things we can learn from school children. in fact there's a book out that is aimed to teach political and big buisness types what they forgot in kindergarden. the main problem here is that the UN doesn't want sadam with weapons, the only way the UN can be completely sure of this is by regular inspections. Yet Sadam constantly has messed with the process of inspections. if he were a caring man who would only think about his own childrens suffering, he would comply.

tomorrow comes after the dark. eventually things will be brighter.

[Corey]

I don't get this. Corey, do you actually support the war, or just like to talk about politics with these guys?

Where are you going with this and why did you single me out?

[liam]

I can't understand Iraqi's why don't they try to leave Iraq, cause if they say ANYTHING (god forbid) bad about the country people WILL some in and rape your children and make you watch... Poor people.

[happening fish]

You make leaving your country sound so easy and logical. Well if you're so afraid of terrorists and Iraqi WMD's attacking the US, then why don't you just pack up your families and run to another country?

[Sufjan Stevens]

I don't get this. Corey, do you actually support the war, or just like to talk about politics with these guys?

Where are you going with this and why did you single me out?

It's a legitimate question, and I am going nowhere with this. I don't have a problem with you questioning people and their views, and in fact, I find what you say quite interesting and informing.

[Corey]

Sorry if I got a little defensive.... I do that sometimes. I'm still on the fence about war. I believe that the UN has the right to go in there and seek out weapons but that doesn't mean we should go bomb crazy. I am human afterall.. I would like to see as few casualties as possible. As for arguing politically... yeah I enjoy it.

[thirdhour]

quote]

I wonder what the Iraqi children are taught? hmmm... oh yes.. To hate America. It is government sanctioned material. Why else do you think the little kids tell such horrible stories? It's from what they are taught in their propaganda laced education.

Some of the most propraganda laced education in the world comes from the US. When was the last time you opened a history text book that said the Us was wrong in any war or mentioned the many innocent civilian casualties of the US war machine? Why do you think they hate the States, I don't know, perhaps because their parents were killed by them?

I don't have the time or energy to type up the list of innocent killings by US armies in recent years, but beleive me...it's extremly long.

Has anybody seen a documentry by Micheal Moore called "Bowling for Columbine"? If not, you most definatly should.

[thirdhour]

Sorry for double posting, but how is it going to help the people of Iraq for Bush to come in, bomb them to hell and then put in a dictater that is prbably going to end up being worse?

ps. sorry for sounding like a bitch. but when it comes to topics i am emotional about, I am one.

[Bandalero]

quote]

I wonder what the Iraqi children are taught? hmmm... oh yes.. To hate America. It is government sanctioned material. Why else do you think the little kids tell such horrible stories? It's from what they are taught in their propaganda laced education.

Some of the most propraganda laced education in the world comes from the US. When was the last time you opened a history text book that said the Us was wrong in any war or mentioned the many innocent civilian casualties of the US war machine? Why do you think they hate the States, I don't know, perhaps because their parents were killed by them?

I don't have the time or energy to type up the list of innocent killings by US armies in recent years, but beleive me...it's extremly long.

Has anybody seen a documentry by Micheal Moore called "Bowling for Columbine"? If not, you most definatly should.

all education around the world is one sided. it's not just the US. to say that the US as the only country to spoon feed the "right history" to it's students is wrong. so you don't have the time nor energy to type up all the innocent lives lost due to US war...ok go ahead and list all innocent lives that Iraq had killed...or better yet, Japan during world war 2. every military force has in some way/shape/form killed raped, or pillaged innocent lives in their history.

as for bombing them to hell, it's military positions that are being targeted by misiles. Ground troops are going into the cities. if your hanging around a base or cluster of SAM's in Iraq, you better move.

[Corey]

When was the last time you opened a history text book that said the Us was wrong in any war or mentioned the many innocent civilian casualties of the US war machine?

Never. But, I also have never opened up a history book that told me any other nation was wrong. History books are not supposed to dictate who was right or wrong, merely just what happened. If you think history books don't tell how many people were killed by the dropping of bombs on Japan, then you are sadly mistaken.

On a side note, ask me how many times I was allowed to express how I THINK the government was wrong. ALL the time. I have that right. I have done so in several classes. Try doing that in countries like Iraq.

[Johnny]

When the Gulf War first started, I got mad, because the local news broke into regularly shcedualed programming. Damn Them. They inturupted Growning Pains!!!

[thirdhour]

[/quote]

as for bombing them to hell, it's military positions that are being targeted by misiles. Ground troops are going into the cities. if your hanging around a base or cluster of SAM's in Iraq, you better move.[/quote]


Are hospitals "military positions"? Are schools? Are people's homes?

[mosaik]

Journal of a "Model Officer"

read that.

that guy is a hero.

[Bandalero]

no...that's why they are not targets.