Boston Globe: The End Of Rakan's War - Iraqi Boy Treated In Boston Dies In Iraq

[Hissyspit]

The End of Rakan's War

Life asked far too much of Rakan Hassan, the Iraqi boy brought to Boston in 2005 for treatment after a mistaken shooting by American troops. The next chapter of his story is hard to write.

Rakan Hassan flashed his famous smile during a physical therapy session in boston in November 2005. (Globe Staff Photo / Michele McDonald)

By Kevin Cullen

Globe Columnist / August 3, 2008

We were standing on a dusty road in Mosul, Dr. Larry Ronan and I, and he had just left us.It was January 2006 and this boy named Rakan had driven away in an Opel sedan identical to the one he was riding in when his life changed forever a year before, and so we stood there, with this odd mix of hope and apprehension, and waved goodbye.

Rakan Hassan had been shot and paralyzed, his parents killed, when American soldiers panicked and opened fire on the family car as it sped toward them in the fading light of dusk. Ronan and other doctors and therapists in Boston had put Rakan back together, and I had watched the whole process, to write about it, and then we brought Rakan back to the war zone where he was nearly killed because that was what Rakan and his family wanted.

As we waved, and the car driven by Rakan's brother-in-law disappeared into the dust, Larry Ronan must have felt what I was feeling because he put his hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye, and said, "Don't worry. We'll see him again."

We never did.

Rakan Hassan, the boy whose life Larry Ronan saved, the boy I sat with most days for five months, the boy who became my son's friend, the boy who touched anybody and everybody he met, was killed in June when a bomb exploded at his family's home in Mosul. He was 14 years old. Two of his sisters - an infant and a teenager - were injured in the attack but are expected to recover.

It happened June 16, but given the madness that is Iraq, it took us weeks to confirm. We got a death certificate the other day and so now we know for sure.

The information is, like Iraq's future, sketchy at best...

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[FKA MNChimpH8R]

1. That is the saddest thing I've ever read at DU

I am sitting her crying as I type this. This is so awful and tragic in every possible way. This story summarizes everything that is wrong with this useless, criminal war and the human sewage that started it.

Goodbye, Rakan. Peace at last be with you. :cry:

[alphafemale]

2. Tell his loved ones the surge is working, John McCain,

Go ahead.

[Hissyspit]

3. .

[alphafemale]

4. kick

[LynnTheDem]

5. "given the madness that is Iraq"...but Fallujah has a KFC!!!!!1

[NNN0LHI]

6. Here is a link to the full story

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/08/03/the_end_of_rakans_war/

[proud patriot]

7. devastatingly sad

:cry:

[johndwright]

8. War is tragic sorrow.

Though the whole story filled my soul with sorrow, the Boston Globe photo of Rakan dressed up like Spider Man, proudly holding his Spider Man doll literally brought tears to my eyes. This poor innocent kid, who had his parents murdered right in front of him, (and literally all over him), and who was paralyzed by the same attack, idolizing an athletic super hero that could run, jump, & climb. Just realizing the struggle & determination it took him to even walk at all again, and knowing the sad, tragic, & pointless ending of his tale, I just can't convey how it tears me apart. All I can say is that even though I've hated this war since before it started, Rakan's sad tale only reinforces my feelings a hundred fold.