A heavy toll on Iraqi Civilians

[Dancing_Dave]

Innocent Iraqi citizens are caught in the crossfire between U.S. troops and insurgents

BY RAY SÁNCHEZ
STAFF WRITER

August 22, 2004


BAGHDAD, Iraq - Rasul Hadi Hrain, 4 years old, lies nearly immobile on a hospital bed in the sprawling slum of Sadr City, his body pockmarked with a half dozen bullet and shrapnel wounds. The shattered body of his father, Hadi, was removed from a downstairs morgue for burial yesterday.

Rasul cries at the mention of his father, and his mother, Whaida Abaid Khalaf, tries to comfort him, stroking his dark hair and whispering in his ear.

"I found Rasul cradled in his father's arms," Khalaf, 37, said through an interpreter yesterday. "He threw his body over his son to save him."

The rest is at http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-woiraq223938987aug22,0,592253.story?coll=ny-worldnews-headlines

[Karenina]

1. Americans don't really care...

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[Skittles]

6. I CARE, KARENINA

my mum survived bombing in England during WWII as a child; her accounts of what it is like for children in a war would make you blubber. She said she used to cover her ears and scream and scream in a futile attempt to drown out the sounds of bombs falling and exploding.

[Karenina]

8. Oh Skittles, I'm so depressed

and so angry at the collective ignorance of most Americans (present company excluded :hug:). My neighbors tell me the real skinny, and the impact is more horrifying than ANYTHING I read on LBN...

Amis don't grasp the depth of your mom's experience. They look on with feigned empathy and offer platitudes about war being hell. WTC was a one-day event. The impact of such an occurrence day after day after
day is lost on most.

I often think that if Americans REALLY understood and cared about the BRUTAL RAPE that is being committed in their names the W.H. would be surrounded DAILY by increasing numbers of folk with torches and pitchforks.

[Name removed]

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[jayfish]

13. An Event That The 4-Year Old And His Father Had Nothing To Do With.

Sorry for your loss however.

Jay

[Skittles]

16. those ASSHOLES that say they're glad we "took the war to Iraq"

I'M SURE THE CHILDREN OF IRAQ APPRECIATE THAT. It's a sickening thing to say.

[Barrett808]

2. Some of us care.

And are following the sad train wreck with almost obsessive attention...

[Dancing_Dave]

3. Instead of just watchin the injustice TAKE YOUR PROTEST TO THE STREETS!

It's much healthier.

This anti-war movement will ultimately succeed in getting our troops out of Iraq, it's the only way to stop the disaster. Americans will not go on and on paying in blood for oil once they realize what the real deal is. Already, the military is unable to recruit enough people to fight this.

It took years of pressure from the peace movement to get us out of Vietnam. Actually, the American public is turning against this war rather more quickly than they turned against the one in Vietnam.

[Barrett808]

15. C U @ NYC!

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

5. "What is the reason for this?"

asked Hesna Sila, 70, who was wounded when she ran from the house to pull her son from crossfire the other day. "We suffered for years under Saddam. Our sons were in jails. Now they die in the streets."

From the piece.

Kind of says it all.

[ninkasi]

7. Bush is very free with tossing the word "evil" around

when talking about countries or individuals who oppose him. In my 61 years, I have never seen more evil unleashed upon the world than this corrupt, arrogant, miserable excuse for a human being has done.

Whatever good America has done in the world up until he seized office has been more than wiped out by the damage he has done. He dares to speak of liberating the Iraqi people from Saddam, and brings much more death, destruction, and misery than Saddam ever thought of.

Children slaughtered in the street...families wiped out, dreams turned into nightmares, and a country reduced to rubble so he could control their oil. If * really believes in God, I wonder how he can sleep at night, with so many sins on his soul.

[Karenina]

10. Thank you, Ninkasi

for your Truth-telling post. However we ALL as Americans must accept responsibility for ALLOWING this to take place. The predators who have seized the American government will have to be IDENTIFIED, DRIVEN OUT and INCARCERATED FOR LIFE if we, as a global community, are to have any chance to survive the challenges on the horizon.

[ninkasi]

14. I agree, Karenina...

While many tried to do what they could to prevent the illegal invasion, it wasn't enough. We can no longer have the luxury of hoping that somebody will arrive on the scene and save us; we have learned that letting these vile, greedy men take even a fracion of power for themselves is to open a tide of grief upon the world.

We can, and we must, start participating in setting our country back on the road to self respect, and become good citizens to the world, instead of letting the Bush thugs swagger around like the bullies they are, trampling every American's liberties into the muck.

I personally don't see how we, as a nation, can ever make up to the rest of the world the damage we have permitted in our name. Bless you, Karenina, and so many others, for obviously feeling the pain the innocents of Iraq feel, and trying to do something to assuage it. People like you are the ones who will keep reminding us of the duty we owe the rest of the world.

[AuntPatsy]

17. Your rifght Karen

We all should feel some responsibility for not forcing this man out of office months ago. Had we gotten together, and demanded our medai and our politicians listen to the voice of the people, the would have had to hear us..we don't have enough money left to put millions of Americans in jail for protesting such an attrocitie..

And your right about 9/11, we rarely have such an even take place on our soil, other countries are not so lucky and many face such threats daily and have for many many years...how can we and I include myself possibly understand what it is like to live in such an atmosphere.

On another board, I attempted to get our small town to see that so many innocents are finding themselves in our firing range, many Iraqs are being killed by us and it's wrong, and I was rediculed, called unpatriotic, told to move to another country if I didn't like it here, and from a woman and mother no less, she said 'big deal, they deserve it, they should go around trying to kill us, when I asked her when had Iraq tried to attack the Us, she said something equally stupid?

So many are that brainless still even after all these months...and we call ourselves a compassionate country...

Some people are just so clueless and unrepentent..it disgusts me and saddens me at the same time.