Children pay price of US offensive

[Ladybast]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/110BB55F-6635-4F73-A470-FE1DF9D8ED41.htm

Children pay price of US offensive

Tuesday 16 November 2004, 19:25 Makka Time, 16:25 GMT


Ala Barham slumps in his hospital bed and stares blankly into the air in front of him. Twelve years old and still deeply in shock, he can barely speak.

Ala's family had fled the Iraqi city of Falluja before last Monday's all-out offensive began. He was happily playing with his brother in the garden of their uncle's house in a village outside the city. Then the rocket hit. "My uncle died. They took us to hospital," he mumbles, speaking in little more than a whisper.

His brother lies face down on the bed next to him, a bandage around his leg, a tube feeding into his stomach. Their mother sits on another bed, cradling her now fatherless two-year-old nephew. Across the room, another two-year-old lies on a bed in a nappy, a blanket covering one tiny leg. The other one was blown off by a shell.

Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi says not a single civilian has died in the assault to retake Falluja from anti-US forces allegedly led by al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But the charred bodies in the streets of the city and the children in Baghdad's Naaman hospital tell a different story.

(More, unfortunately)

[JNelson6563]

1. And when we are attacked next time

all the Red-Americans will wonder why. Ugh.

Julie

[liberalmuse]

2. Thanks Bush.

There is no justice. The Geneva Conventions are ripped to shreds. People around the world are in agony because of our policies, but Bush will die a peaceful death, and probably have several landmarks named after him.

The party of 'Family Values' has ripped more families apart--with bombs, than they've ever saved. Genocide is something you finally call by it's right name, then turn your back to, or call 'The War on Terror', while you systematically wipe out those of a specific religious group and/or nationality. Torture is a 'frat prank'. No worries. All the white protestant fetuses they save will take the place of the brown-skinned children, and I say this with the deepest, most bitter sarcasm.

We are the new Nazi's, thanks to 51%.

[classof56]

3. Sadly and tragically, you are right.

There is no justice. We are the new Nazis. Those who voted for Bush have no clue yet what they have done, and I for one intend to not hold back from now on in explaining it to the Bush-voters I know. Will doubtless weaken some relationships, family and friends, that I now have. Depends on how willing they are to face and accept the truth. I suspect, in the "new reality" we're living in, they will not get it, even when the worst of it hits the fan.

As Orwell said:

War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength.

1984 is here.

[OneBlueSky]

4. you know things are at rock bottom when al Jazeera . . .

has more credibility than the mainstream American media . . .

[Ladybast]

5. Al jazeera, from its inception

has always had more credibility than the mainstream American media, which unfortunately is not a difficult standard to better.

That is why Saddam Hussein, during his last days of power, exiled Al Jazeera from Iraq. Its reporters stubbornly insisted on reporting the truth instead of his propaganda. That is why both sides hate and persecute Al Jazeera journalists, and why, early in the war, the US Military "mistakenly" bombed the hotel roof from which Al Jazeera was broadcasting. Did you see the film Control Room?

http://imdb.com/title/tt0391024/#comment

[riverwalker]

6. "they hate us for our freedom"

"Across the room, another two-year-old lies on a bed in a nappy, a blanket covering one tiny leg. The other one was blown off by a shell."
:mad:

[struggle4progress]

7. The country is run by "pro-lifers" who feel good about bombing kids. eom