What About the Iraqi Children?
by Charlotte Aldebron
March 6, 2003
The following is a transcript of a speech given by now 13-year-old Charlotte Aldebron at a peace rally in Maine.
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 Senior 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 in 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.
More:
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/aldebron1.htmlAlso:
Stories by Charlotte Aldebron
Charlotte Aldebron, 13, attends Cunningham Middle School in Presque Isle, Maine.
Do We Really Have Free Speech?
"The invasion of Afghanistan, and now Iraq, has given me a big lesson in freedom of speech -- or, should I say, the difference between the idea of free speech and the reality of free speech."
Posted on Apr 27, 2003
What About the Iraqi Children?
While Bush tip-toes around discussions about "the sacrifices of war," a 13-year-old girl gets straight to the point: those who will lose the most from a war will be Iraq's 12 million children.
Posted on Mar 3, 2003
More:
http://www.alternet.org/authors/5669/
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