Residents to collect 200 soccer balls for Iraqi children (Pascagoula)

[Barrett808]

Residents to collect 200 soccer balls for Iraqi children
By QUINCY C. COLLINS
PASCAGOULA - [e-mail]

While Mississippi soldiers patrol Iraq's war-torn terrain, Jackson County residents have launched a goodwill mission to make the soldiers' job a little easier.

Jackson County employees, District Attorney Tony Lawrence's Office and Singing River Soccer Club in Pascagoula joined efforts to collect 200 soccer balls for Iraqi children.

The drive started when Staff Sgt. Terry Armstrong, a member of the Mississippi National Guard's 155th Combat Tea,, described his experiences to his boss in Jackson County.

Armstrong, who works in the appraisal maintenance division of the Tax Assessor's Office, told his director Kevin Hindmarch about the many children who approached his unit asking for "futbol" like the ones Marines had passed out before the 155th arrived, Hindmarch said.

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/breaking_news/11782123.htm

[noamnety]

1. more human shelds

"Capt. Ayers took lessons from his fellow captains. In April, Capt. Jesse Beaudin convinced a friend from the U.S. to send backpacks, notebooks and pencils for schoolchildren. Kids mobbed troops for the goods whenever they went out on patrol. "The kids provided security. No one attacked us when we were surrounded by children," Capt. Beaudin says. After hearing about this tactic at the dining hall, Capt. Ayers's men also wrote home requesting school supplies."

-- WSJ

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. "The kids provided security???!!!!"

:cry:

<sigh>

Ya....futbols is exactly what they need the most right now. To hell with food, water, electricity, clothes, schools, roads, a home, a mother, a father, a family or a country.....am I being too cynical?

[Just Me]

7. I know, I know,...

:cry: The cold cruelty is just :cry: horrible!!!

[donsu]

2. they ought to send 100 local electric company workers to fix for free

electric service in Iraq.

[4_TN_TITANS]

4. No warm fuzzies here,

from this story. With a 50% malnourishment rate among Iraqi children, futbols are the least of their needs. These soldiers are playing to the kids WANTS instead, and benefiting from the human shields.

[BringEmOn]

5. Makes the kids better targets

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=95188

In one case -- after I did Abu Ghraib, I got a bunch of digital pictures emailed me, and – was a lot of work on it, and I decided, well, we can talk about it later. You never know why you do things. You have some general rules, but in this case, a bunch of kids were going along in three vehicles. One of them got blown up. The other two units -- soldiers ran out, saw some people running, opened up fire. It was a bunch of boys playing soccer. And in the digital videos you see everybody standing around, they pull the bodies together. This is last summer. They pull the bodies together. You see the body parts, the legs and boots of the Americans pulling bodies together. Young kids, I don’t know how old, 13, 15, I guess. And then you see soldiers dropping R.P.G.'s, which are rocket-launched grenades around them. And then they're called in as an insurgent kill. It's a kill of, you know, would-be insurgents or resistance and it goes into the computers, and I'm sure it's briefed. Everybody remembers how My Lai was briefed as a great victory, “128 Vietcong killed.” And so you have that pattern again. You know, ask me why I didn't do this story. Because I didn't think the kids did murder. I think it was another day in the war. And even to write about it in a professional way would name names and all that.

[noamnety]

6. I sent a LTTE on this

(A little redundant given my previous post, but I'm pasting it here anyway)

Subject: Concerns about the soccer ball collection for Iraqi children

"Capt. Ayers took lessons from his fellow captains. In April, Capt. Jesse Beaudin convinced a friend from the U.S. to send backpacks, notebooks and pencils for schoolchildren. Kids mobbed troops for the goods whenever they went out on patrol. "The kids provided security. No one attacked us when we were surrounded by children," Capt. Beaudin says. After hearing about this tactic at the dining hall, Capt. Ayers's men also wrote home requesting school supplies." (from the Wall Street Journal, Sept 22, 2004).

Using bribes to lure children to military vehicles in the hopes that it will deter attacks is a fine line away from using human shields, which is a war crime. It's a tactic the military has been resorting to in Iraq, but it's not an ethical one.

Before promoting the collection of toys for Iraqi children, you should question the motive behind the request, and find out why, when the malnutrition rate of Iraqi children has doubled since the invasion, they aren't asking us to donate food instead of sports equipment, and why they aren't passing it out to the adults rather than children. You should be asking why they would want to encourage children to approach US military vehicles which are an obvious terrorist target.

XXXXX XXXXX
US Army (1984-1986)
US Army Reserves (active) (1989-1992)

[Jacobin]

8. I'm sure they'll be put to good use.

Perfect place to hide an IED.