WaPo: Iraqi Youth Face Lasting Scars of War-Psychological Impact on Children Is Immense

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/25/AR2007062501952.html

Iraqi Youth Face Lasting Scars of War
Conflict's Psychological Impact on Children Is Immense, Experts Say

By Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, June 26, 2007; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- Marwa Hussein watched as gunmen stormed into her home and executed her parents. Afterward, her uncle brought her to the Alwiya Orphanage, a high-walled compound nestled in central Baghdad with a concrete yard for a playground. That was more than two years ago, and for 13-year-old Marwa, shy and thin with walnut-colored eyes and long brown hair, the memory of her parents' last moments is always with her.

"They were killed," she said, her voice trailing away as she sat on her narrow bed with pink sheets. Tears started to slide down her face. As social worker Maysoon Tahsin comforted her, other orphans in the room, where 12 girls sleep, watched solemnly.

Iraq's conflict is exacting an immense and largely unnoticed psychological toll on children and youth that will have long-term consequences, said social workers, psychiatrists, teachers and aid workers in interviews across Baghdad and in neighboring Jordan.

"With our limited resources, the societal impact is going to be very bad," said Haider Abdul Muhsin, one of the country's few child psychiatrists. "This generation will become a very violent generation, much worse than during Saddam Hussein's regime."

Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, 4 million Iraqis have fled their homes, half of them children, according to the United Nations Children's Fund. Many are being killed inside their sanctuaries -- at playgrounds, on soccer fields and in schools. Criminals are routinely kidnapping children for ransom as lawlessness goes unchecked. Violence has orphaned tens of thousands.

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[Toots]

1. Republicans will protect us

They are so very very brave and know that if only we torture a few more they will be so afraid of America they won't even think about ever attacking us. We are so very lucky that Republicans were in charge when Criminals acted on 9-11..Republicans say America would much rather be feared than loved and are making sure we are never to be loved again, only feared..

[G_j]

2. pure evil

"Destroying human life to save human life is just not ethical." (pResident George Bush on his Saturday radio broadcast)

[babylonsister]

3. What a flaming hypocrite he is. nt

[MountainLaurel]

4. What a heartbreaking story

And what bad news for us in the future. Remember, it was a generation or two or Afghani children who had known nothing but war that provided thousands of new recruits for the Taliban and al Qaeda. This war will still be in full throttle when my niece is of age to join the military (she's 2-1/2 now).

[babylonsister]

5. And just think how we as Americans are hated, because of 2 men and

their evil cohorts.

[Bandit]

6. If only it were just two men

It is 28% of the American voting population that are accomplice in this obscenity. They cheer about it..

[babylonsister]

7. Yes, but the PNACers started it; had it not been started, we wouldn't

have had to consider the percentage of the country who were duped by their lies.

[Solly Mack]

8. America must be so proud