Youssif and family arrive in U.S.: 'Am I in heaven?' (Burned Iraqi Boy)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CNN

Youssif, the 5-year-old Iraqi boy who was savagely burned by masked men, arrived in the United States late Tuesday with his family -- the first step toward his lengthy rehabilitation.

For a family whose lives were tortured by the random and brutal violence of Iraq, the sheer magnitude of stepping onto American soil was surreal. His parents were rendered speechless. Quite simply they grinned from ear to ear. They didn't need to speak. The joy on their faces was palpable.

They had traveled more than 7,500 miles to get help for their son, from war-torn central Baghdad to coastal Los Angeles. It marked the first time the family had ever left their homeland, let alone flown on a plane.

"Oh my God, it's so green. Am I in heaven?" Youssif's mother, Zainab, said after arriving in Chicago before the family flew on to Los Angeles where Youssif will be treated.

-----

The story prompted an outpouring of support to get help for Youssif. More than 12,000 CNN.com users have contributed to a fund set up by the Children's Burn Foundation.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/12/youssif.arrives/index.html

---

Nice to see such a great outpouring by CNN viewers and internet users including great response to this story on DU.

[Bonobo]

1. "Am I in Heaven"!? Can I vomit now?

[TwilightGardener]

3. LOL!

[cali]

5. Sure, but

you might try and grasp that after the hell these people have been through for years, any place that isn't the scorched earth that Iraq now is, thanks to us, probably does feel like heaven.

[laylah]

31. Some folks just don't get it...

unfortunately. Bless their hearts. I am so very glad they are on safe (for now) ground. May they ALL find peace.

I must say; however, when I read the child's remark about Heaven, my first thought was "No, it is Iowa" :rofl:

Peace.

[OldTymeDem]

13. Perhaps You Should Travel A Little..

Then maybe you would appreciate your country more...

[Bonobo]

16. Yup, that"s me, I never travelled anywhere -lol.

[CreekDog]

23. You were just cold and crass

[JerseygirlCT]

15. I'm glad he's happy, at least. Poor kid. nt

[CreekDog]

22. Bonobo, please don't make fun of the kid

He might just have a little more appreciation for life than you do after going through what he has.

[Bonobo]

32. I was NOT making fun of the kid. I was making fun of the media...

They plant these feel good stories when we have NOTHING to feel good about vis a vis Iraq.

So I laugh.

This story will join the immortal world of Jessica Lynch, Let's Roll, and the Saddam statue.

[CreekDog]

37. "Am I in heaven" and "Let's roll" really happened

Jessica Lynch was a fabrication.

Don't lump them.

And you said vomit right after quoting the kid. If you weren't making fun of him, you damn sure were trying to sound like it.

[Bonobo]

39. I got some property for you if you think "Let"s roll" really happened.

Anyway, I told you I wasn"t making fun of the kid and I don't care if you believe me.

[CreekDog]

40. It sounded snide what can I say

Not my fault it sounded the way it did and I'm not saying you meant it that way.

Did you really expect that you would word it that way and nobody would say a word about what you said? Give me a break.

[CreekDog]

43. Ah, you know better than evvvvverrrrybody else

You know what REALLY happened and what didn't.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Aw. Good luck, little guy. Glad you're here.

[bdamomma]

4. it will be green again, if we end this nightmare of *.

[Tansy_Gold]

6. And how many thousands more just like him are there, still

in Iraq, still under the threat of all the hell there?

It's good that one child, one family are being helped, but this tiny bit of charity hardly expiates the myriad sins (used intentionally) committed by the boooosh administration and its unholy supporters.



Tansy Gold

[redqueen]

8. Indeed...

reading this made me choke up, thinking of how many other children aren't so lucky.

[Ilsa]

9. That was my thought as well. He is just one of tens of thousands.

Why aren't all who need help brought here if they cannot be helped there? They tried building a $50 mil hospital for women and children in southern Iraq, but it turned in to a wasted boondoggle.

[sandnsea]

10. I emailed the burn center

A representative was on CNN gushing about how wonderful they are to help this one child. WTF? What about the 4 million displaced Iraqis? What about the tens of thousands of other injured children? People write a check and assuage their guilt, they've done "their part". And then they hop a flight to their beach vacation and don't worry their 'beautiful minds' for another minute. :grr:

[OldTymeDem]

12. Such bitterness..

"As a man walked a desolate beach one cold, gray morning he began to see another figure, far in the distance. Slowly the two approached each other, and he could make out a local native who kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again he hurled things into the ocean. As the distance between them continued to narrow, the man could see that the native was picking up starfish that had been washed upon the beach and, one at a time, was throwing them back into the water. Puzzled, the man approached the native and asked what he was doing.

"I'm throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it's low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don't throw them back into the sea, they'll die up here from lack of oxygen."

"But there must be thousands of starfish on this beach," the man replied. "You can't possibly get to all of them. There are just too many. And this same thing is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. Can't you see that you can't possibly make a difference?"

The local native smiled, bent down and picked up another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea he replied, "Made a difference to that one!"


AMEN!

[sandnsea]

17. Yeah, useless happy talk

write a check and feel better. go ahead. tell your friends. nobody else will know the difference.

[OldTymeDem]

19. Such Compassion On Display Here

If your giving so that others may notice, its only for vanity that you are doing such. The widow who humbly gave her last penny gave more than the Pharisee who gave much and bragged about it.

[sandnsea]

21. oh god, scripture, IGNORE n/t

[CreekDog]

24. Heaven forbid someone quote scripture to you

Are you melting yet?

How about some tolerance?

[sandnsea]

26. Not in my daily life, not here

When people resort to throwing scripture around, I resort to throwing them out of my life. I get to make choices too. See how freedom works?

[CreekDog]

27. you have a double standard

If he quoted Spongebob Squarepants, you'd have no issue, but Jesus, well, then shut up.

This is a weird century.

[sandnsea]

29. Moral condescension

that's all it is and people who resort to it have no place in my life.

[CreekDog]

30. you assume it's condescension

but people quote others all the time, be it scripture, artists, candidates, rubes on tv, etc.

like I said, you have a double standard towards scripture that makes it less equal to you than other things you hear.

and that is not being open minded.

[sandnsea]

33. No, I know it's condescension

People toss it around because they think it will intimidate others into silence while removing themselves from personal responsibility and confrontation. It's the kind of arrogant, yet weak, tactic used by the Bushies. I don't have anything to do with people who can't make their own argument based on facts that they have researched themselves. Now if you want to have a whose god is better than whose contest, you are welcome to do that in the religion/theology forum. But keep it the hell out of my face. Clear enough?

[CreekDog]

34. I read the post that you claim is condescension

And that is not the case from my reading.

He was using it to illustrate his point.

Your assumption is flatly false because it assumes all reference to scripture is used to overpower somebody else.

How ignorant you are to claim to all people's motives in all cases.

[sandnsea]

38. ignore n/t

You clearly have no respect for anyone's personal request to not be preached to. good bye.

[CreekDog]

42. I didn't preach to you, I took issue with your statement

[CreekDog]

25. I like your post

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

but we have to do more because:

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."


Do good, then do more.

[zazen]

7. support for victim is wonderful, but story reads like talk show genre

I didn't know about this particular heinous crime (guess he was luckier than Abeer and her family), and I am glad to see this outpouring of generosity. However, look at the hyperlinks, enticing the reader to be a voyeur to the victim's suffering. Couldn't they write this in a way that seemed less like an advertisement? It's bad enough that the boy probably would be intact today if not for our disgusting invasion, or that no doubt many Repubs who support the war are sending money to this one victim to allay their guilt, but for CNN to turn this into Barnum & Baileyish prime TV emotion-jerking just disgusts me.

Examples (in bold and pullout)

"Desperate, he turned to CNN. "Look at what these monsters did to my boy," he said. _Watch how Youssif was transformed from a smiling boy to a disfigured victim_

Don't Miss
--Boy, 5, doused in gas, set on fire by masked men
--Help is on the way for Youssif
--Burned boy's dad: 'Anything for Youssif'

[justgamma]

11. Will we send them back when he is well? n/t

[JerseygirlCT]

14. I'm glad he's getting help, but there are so many whose lives

we've just destroyed...

[Vinca]

18. That poor, little kid. What kind of person does such a thing?

Sometimes I have very little hope for this world.

[OldTymeDem]

20. Wonder why he didnt go to the UK, Canada, or Cuba?

I hear the healthcare is much better there and free!

[DrunkenMaster]

28. What An Insightful Question!

You sure know how to get to the heart of the matter...gee, maybe he came here to the US because WE'RE THE ONES THAT F**KING INVADED ILLEGALLY and started this whole mess so we bear responsibility?

Naaah, couldn't be....you MUST be right: it's because we're the best! USA! USA! USA!

On Edit: Seriously, though: how do you manage to feed yourself?

[silvermachine]

35. Lots of good grub...

...under the bridge.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

36. Don't gloat so much. They're going to a dirty librul blue State -- California. -nt

[SemiCharmedQuark]

41. Um...because none of those states are involved in the Iraq war?

Maybe?

Nice try though. A for effort, D- for content.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

44. Or rather:

Britain IS involved, but is no longer trying to promote the Iraq War.

Pretty much they said "We will stay the course...Hey look over there!" and then backed quietly out of the room.