Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Newsvine
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiBAQUBA - The violence around the continuing U.S. military operations in this city has robbed children of their childhood.
Only two provincial schools and one private kindergarten school are functioning in this city of 280,000, located 50 km north of Baghdad. Most children know neither school nor play.
Or even the food they want. "We parents can hardly meet the basic requirements of food," Mahdi Hassan, a father of four, told IPS.
"Nobody even mentions chocolate or pastries or anything else because Iraqis know they are not important," Baquba resident Wissam Jafar told IPS. "Children eat what the other members of the family eat. Toys and games are offered only at festivals and on special occasions."
Baquba city, capital of Diyala province, has been at the centre of major U.S. military operations to fight al-Qaeda like forces. People have suffered from the violence from both sides.
By now Iraq has seen a generation of children pass with just survival a major issue. During the period of economic sanctions imposed on Iraq in the 1990s, more than half a million children died, according to the United Nations.
In 1996, former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright was asked by Lesley Stahl on the CBS à ½¸ Minutes' show if she thought the price of half a million dead children was worth it. She replied, "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price -- we think the price is worth it."
One in eight children in Iraq died during that period of malnutrition, disease, and lack of medicine.
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq during March 2003 brought hope that things might change, but that change has only been for the worse.
"During the nineties, they were malnourished but they could find a place to play in the streets," Khalid Ali, a local economist, told IPS. "Nowadays, they cannot even get out of their home because of the violence. And a large number of children have been killed through the violence."
There is one park in Baquba with some basic swings for children; another was recently renovated by an Iraqi NGO. Both get overcrowded on festivals and holidays. Parents feel obliged to take their children out on these days, despite the risk.
On other days, no more than two or three families visit the parks.
Sajid Asim who earns 175 dollars a month from his job in the water department says the money is barely enough for food for the family. "Surely, there won't be any extra money to bring the children special food or clothes, or games, or even taking them to picnics." For those without work -- and there are many -- the situation is worse.
Schoolteachers and managers spoke to IPS of the problems facing children who do manage to go to school.
"Teaching has been hit by the political situation in Iraq," said Salma Majid, manager of a local primary school. "Children can often not get to the school, and we may have more than three days off in a week. The whole academic year may be delayed because the violence has been so extreme this year."
Schools can provide children a chance to play but sometimes it is not safe," she said. "A number of school buildings have been hit by mortar."
According to an Oxfam report on Iraq released Jul. 30, "92 percent of children had learning impediments that are largely attributable to the current climate of fear. Schools are regularly closed as teachers and pupils are too fearful to attend. Over 800,000 children may now be out of school, according to a recent estimate by Save the Children UK -- up from 600,000 in 2004."
The Oxfam report also said that child malnutrition rates in Iraq have risen from 19 percent before the invasion in 2003, to 28 percent. "More than 11 percent of newborn babies were born underweight in 2006, compared with 4 percent in 2003."
Scarcity has brought all sorts of difficulties for children. "I put a sandwich in the bag for my son to take to school," said a mother who declined to give her name. "When he got back home, he said he could not have it because his classmates do not bring their own sandwiches; their parents do not give them sandwiches."
A local primary school teacher, Ali Abbas, said it is common now for students to arrive at school without breakfast.
"One day, one of the children suddenly passed out," Abbas said. "We immediately took her to the administration room. When she regained consciousness, I asked her why she fainted. She told me that she did not have breakfast because there was no breakfast at home."
(*Ahmed, our correspondent in Iraq's Diyala province, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who travels extensively in the region)
© 2007 Inter Press Service
20 Comments so far
Show AllThe slaughter of Iraqi children by Americans and their mercenary clients will only stop with the victory of the resistance and when American soldiers themselves finally revolt and demand to return home, as they did in Viet Nam. The slow deaths of these children will only cease when the Iraqi people regain their sovereignty and use their talents and natural wealth to rebuild their country free of foreign occupiers.
No amount of hand-wringing is going to change this equation. Such barbarism goes against all we hold dear - but we must recognize the brutal truth than only sustained armed resistance of the Iraqi people against a murderous foreign occupier will end the misery for the lovely children of Iraq. The defeat of the US occupation is the prerequisite for a victory of civilization. And only the tenacious Iraqi resistance has prevented Bush and company from expanding the war to include attacking Iran and slaughtering Iranian children. There is no moral equivalence. The invader is evil and has systematically created the conditions for ethnic cleansing and the destruction of these children's future. Clinton's Administration was just as guilty in crimes against the children of Iraq. The leadership of both political parties seek to sear a lesson into the consciousness of the entire resource-rich Third World: Resist our dictates and see your own children crushed like the little ones of Iraq!
In the picture what is that fool doing pointing the gun at the children? Big, bad**s.
What the u.s. did and continues to do to the children of Iraq is so hideous none of you can think about it either. go to that link down there and read the defense inteligence agency's plan for destroying Iraq's water treatment facilities, then preventing them from fixing them, so as to produce "increased incidences, if not epidemics, of water borne disease" And the sanctions, rigidly enforced by clinton and albright, prvented any medicine or vaccines from getting to Iraq.
The result was a million dead children. a world trade center's worth of dead toddlers every month since 1991. The reason lesley stahl's confronttion with abright became so famous is that it was the only time any word of this monstrous act leaked through of the msm veil of
secrecy, which is still in effect.
http://www.scn.org/ccpi/infrastructure.html
When our preciious children are similarly poisoned, brutalized, or enslaved, maybe those adults left standing will get it but not until then. How shocking, disgusting, and depicable of US armed forces doing this in our name.
Jimi Hendrix:
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Please do share your water and food with someone's child - over there somewhere. And here at home, where the law says to the mother's child,
..."death by thirst and starvation" for not talking so that enough of 'the college educated' can comprehend.
Do it in small groups in all directions. Many small targets. Not one large mass to aim at. Do it at your own table and end the obesity epidemic. An epidemic created by trying to eat enough for "good nutrition"!
How many more generations till we can "see" a childhood again on this earth?
Deepa:
"Delaying an American flight yesterday at San Diego (going to Chicago) because an American woman became suspicious of Iraqi Americans speaking in Arabic manifests the American "self-righteous/arrogant" mindset."
The utter stupidity and arrogance of the American (US) beggars belief.... It is common knowledge worldwide, and confirmed by evidence both written and visual, that the true terrorist and danger to the entire planet is the American (US).
These incidents on flights, where ignorant and stupid American passengers have humiliated others on the basis of their dress, religion is intolerable, and perhaps, it's now time that the world needs to use the same tactic with US Americans:
1) Non-Americans should refuse to sit next to US passengers - they are, after all, proven terrorists: the wars of aggression on Iraq and Afghanistan are enough evidence, not to mention others all over the world;
2) Non-Americans should insist to airline crew that they will not fly unless the US passenger is removed - what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and unless USans are made to feel what they make others go through, all the reports and articles are of no use.
Come on, non-US people? Stand united against this evil....
This CAN be done and SHOULD be done. No use in Americans (US) saying it is their government responsible for all the heinous crimes - they are equally complicit through their silence and acceptance, together with harrassing innocent passengers just because they happen to be of another nationality/creed.
How dare the stupid woman from San Diego..
As for the suffering of Iraq's children, the responsibility sits squarely on US shoulders - every one of them.
i had much of my childhood and adolescence robbed due to very bad conditions at home. this situation with the children of iraq is a tragedy beyond words to describe.
the overwhelming majority of americans have no clue how many people have been killed in iraq, much less the issues w/children. even when the MSM addresses issues, like refugees, you are led to believe these people are fleeing sectarian violence, not the US military, by far the predominant killer in iraq. so when the catastrofuck of iraq is addressed, it's mostly to reinforce the idea that the US should stay there.
and the number killed is almost never bro't up. and when it is bro't up, it is misunderestimated by a factor of 30 or more.
You think they hate us now, just wait until the Pentagon has had its way with Iran:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2369001.ece
I read the post of someone on another thread and they suggested that we inundate the White House with phone calls? Maybe a personal visit to the White House is in order?
Perhaps a nice, quiet, reflective, prayerful meditation at the White House...no speeches. No signs. Just a massive, quiet human presence. Something that might make Laura, Jenna and Barbara pull George W. off into a room and tell him, "You can't do this."
Create a Nixon moment. Remember, when he wanted to Nuke North Vietnam and he looked out the window and there were a million people in front of the White House?
I suggest candles. Something very quiet and powerful. An action that will spread to every city and town in the country and all across the planet.
We need an evolutionary leap in consciousness. A "Hundredth Monkey" phenomenon to take place. Something that is beyond politics. Beyond the media. Beyond anything that we've ever known.
This madness must stop. We must grow up as a human species and stop the killing and maiming of other human beings. This is politically sanctioned barbaric insanity paid for with the sweat and blood of the American People. It is evil, sick and perverted. This is not who we are! We are paying for deeds that are contrary to our freedom, happiness and very survival! This has to be a definition of insanity!
Rodney King was right on the money when he said, "Can't we all just get along?"
The Iraqi children have been liberated. When the war had started, I still remember how many Americans in my city had yard signs proclaiming "Liberate Iraq" on their yard.
I am sure all these countrymen of mine are having a great night's sleep knowing that that mission has been accomplished.
In a country where the "other" is seen suspiciously as a "thief" or a "terrorist" or with "low morals", or "less human", American Christians killing Iraqi children either through military force or through sanctions is not surprising. Delaying an American flight yesterday at San Diego (going to Chicago) because an American woman became suspicious of Iraqi Americans speaking in Arabic manifests the American "self-righteous/arrogant" mindset. That means Iraqi Americans are not Americans, and are "terrorists" because they were not speaking in English?????? What does this incident show the general American mindset???? When one looks around and see what Christian Americans are doing in sovereign countries like Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Congo...... it is loud and clear who the terrorists are and which country in the world is the terrorist sponsoring country. What this so called "righteous" country has done to the innocent Iraqi children could be seen by human beings around the world, except the "righteous" American christians.
Unless you come out of this self-delusion and question the American myths, you will continue to kill many more innocent children. Know that American soldiers are terrorists (don't you see that in the photo, where an American soldier pointing his gun at innocent Iraqi children), killing innocent Iraqis in their own land, and America is a terrorist sponsoring country. If you can not believe this, atleast look around and see the reality. Then you will see the real America.
Most of "us" will never know why the Middle Eastern survivors hate us in the first place. When lies become the realities for so many, it leaves our nation in a limbo. I have a friend, a decent woman, who watches Pat Robertson regularly, talks about The Rapture and, when faced with a reality says,"I don't know what to think." This is where so many poorly educated Americans who often genuinely care about others find themselves. As P.T. Barnum said,"There's a sucker born every minute." The human condition is that many people aren't all that sharp or have practice with critical thinking. And most of us are, at times, vulnerable to psychological manipulations when the MSM is cooperating with powerful corporatist interests. Note that there is now a cholera outbreak in northern Iraq due to the horrendous sanitation problems. Opportunistic diseases go hand in hand with warfare. It can only get worse as long as this occupation lasts.
"But of course Bush the Inferior wouldn't have been able to reenact all his sick early childhood psycho drama on the rest of the world……"
Having said this, it is my belief issues FAR MORE SINISTER are at play here....
GO TO:
"Post-Mortem America: Bush's Year of Triumph and the Hard Way Ahead"
Written by Chris Floyd
http://www.chris-floyd.com/
Sunday, 02 September 2007
How could we allow our government to poison their earth with atomic waste? It has happened and it continues every single day. Sadly, those children won't live long enough to think much about missing their childhood.
We'll see soon enough, time will tell. It takes a few years for the effects of inhaling nano-particles of DU for one to exhibit the symptoms of radiation poisoning.
Those who don't die will hate us forever and in ten years we will have forgotten why.
My heart breaks every day for all our children and theirs. Think Ukraine, Think Orange and several sets of handcuffs.
War crimes are only for those who stop playing by the rules of the rich and powerful. We are so lost.
Hedgeteacher, you are right. How could we US citizens sit idly by and let this type of depredation go on for so long?
I'd be willing to help get the entire Bush Crime Family, plus the Clinton administration, who are responsible for so many children's death and loss of childhood, to the Hague for the World Court for crimes against humanity.
For an accrued cost of 2.5 Trillion Dollars over a 10 year time frame, you could have bought Iraq with no loss of life, no suffering and NO COLLECTIVE CULTURAL SHAME that is now America's International Reputation.....
But thinking in these terms would have required using the original Pentagon's Intelligence Estimate circa 2002 correctly and COMMON SENSE....Oh I forgot that's the REAL Federal Deficit......
But of course Bush the Inferior wouldn't have been able to reenact all his sick early childhood psycho drama on the rest of the world......
Bush the Superior is probably thinking about now; if only he'd sent "SICK IN THE HEAD LITTLE GEORGE" to a decent psychiatrist.....
And this is the price of so called democracy to the Middle East - the real Cradle of Civilisation in the West? I, and many others hope this and other atrocities weigh heavily on your Albrights and others of that ilk each night. You lot disgust me, and I wait for your respective appearances at the Hague for War Crimes.