Iraqi bomb boy's anger at pilot

[Rose Siding]

LONDON, England --Iraqi war orphan Ali Abbas says he hopes the U.S. pilot who bombed his family will be made to suffer as he has.

Ali lost both arms and suffered 60 percent burns in a U.S. bombing raid on Baghdad that killed both his parents and 13 other family members. He has now been fitted with artificial arms in a London hospital.

He told ITV1's Tonight Special, to be screened on Tuesday, he still had vivid memories of the night of the strike that killed his parents and 13 other family members.

"I keep asking myself: 'Why are they bombing Iraqi people? What have we done to them?' I hoped that the pilot who hit our house would be burned as I am burned and my family were burned."

He said he had mixed feelings about the British following his ordeal.

"When I was in the hospital they sent me letters, but they still helped the Americans," he said.

He recalled huddling with his family in his home during the bombing, and later being stopped by the police as he rushed to hospital.

"They asked questions like: 'Where are you going? Where are you heading? Who is this?' Then I looked at my arms and I saw them gone. They said: 'It is a hopeless case, it's hopeless.'"

Images of Ali lying in a filthy cot in a Baghdad hospital, close to death, shocked the world.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/10/13/sprj.irq.ali/index.html

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. It hasn't shocked the world enough to disarm the US

Little Ali's handlers should remember that he still has family in Iraq and his statements can only be described as anti-Coalition sentiment, which is not tolerated by the regime.

Has the 8th battalion destroyed their homes yet?

[soupkitchen]

2. Doesn't he know he's better off than before?

[Sagan]

3. obviously, this little boy still hates us for our freedom...

maybe we need to do MORE bombing

[soupkitchen]

4. Yeah the freedom to use our arms

[ninkasi]

5. I still see him

in my mind. He became, for me, the symbol of what my country, the U.S., has become. We are better than that, or I fervently hope we are. I pray that all of us wake up to see what we are becoming under Bush and his henchmen. I don't recognize my own country anymore.

I honestly believe that at this moment, if some shrill conservative were to confront me as I sit at my keyboard, and start in on how I must be unpatriotic to question their sham of a president, I'd have to be restrained from going psycho.

[ozone_man]

9. It's hard to believe that we could sit back and watch this

attrocity. I can only hope that the rest of the country is waking up now about this war, and I do not forgive those candidates that supported it.

[Twillig]

6. Quick get Kyra Phillips on the case again!!

Doctor, does he understand why this war took place? Has he talked about Operation Iraqi Freedom and the meaning? Does he understand it?’
CNN, April 16, 2003


http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0304/16/lt.11.html

Kyra Phillips may this shameful exhibition of your stupidity haunt you forever.


Kyra Phillips. Let's not forget this vacuous moron's name.

[reprobate]

11. Operation Iraqi Freedom. I prefer the original name.

Operation Iraqi Liberation. We like to abbreviate it: OIL

[DulceDecorum]

14. Kyra says:

"Ali now that you have arms,
wouldn't you like to meet the pilot who dropped the bombs on your house and give him a hug?
Come on forgive and forget like a good Christian,
Ali,
Ali,
you get back here right now.
You seem to have forgotten all we have done for you."

[David__77]

7. This is different than was portrayed.

I remember the US media making much over his alleged lack of anger toward the occupiers. I think it was spin put in his mouth by his handlers. I wish him the best.

[diamond14]

8. my father bombed Germany in WWII....as he got older and wiser,

he realized the full horror that he had perpetrated on innocents...and the screams haunted him for the rest of his life.....

he was just a young man drafted into WWII, forced to killed innocents...

my cousin was drafted into Vietnam....was killed at the age of 19, which may have been more merciful than my father's fate...

young people today should wake up to bush* plans for them...the draft is coming....yesterday's Washington Post brought up the shortage of troops again, pointed out by our military generals again...will you young people come to DC or SF for the protests on October 25, 2003??? will you STAND UP and protest, or are you dying like sheep in a slaughter???
http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/o25/index.html

-------------------------------------------

A Risky Strain on an Overstretched Army

Sunday, October 12, 2003; Page B03


Retired Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar, a former commander of U.S. Central Command, and retired Air Force Col. Richard Klass are independent national security consultants.

-snips-

The most urgent task is to relieve the heavy burden on the U.S. Army, the troops and their families. They are virtually the only Americans now sacrificing in this war. The new Iraqi army will help but not soon enough. If we are unable or unwilling to make the political compromises to secure a U.N. mandate that will allow substantial international participation, we will have to call up more National Guard and Reserve units in the short run and expand the Army as soon as possible. We simply must reduce deployment rates and end "stop loss" orders that keep service men and women in the military involuntarily, to the detriment of their family life and their jobs. If we do not act soon, we may not be able to achieve recruitment levels to sustain the Army's current size, let alone expand it.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11012-2003Oct10.html

[Zhade]

19. A draft would be BushCo's downfall.

Betrayed citizens + weapons + military training = BushCo's worst nightmare.

[Sticky]

10. Hmmmmm.....interesting

I just saw Lori Whatshername on MSNBC showing a happy Ali with his newly fitted arms. She was all agiggle over his progress and a new watch he was given for the occasion.

These people make me sick! Why Oh Why are we not able to look at ourselves and explore the truth about what our actions have done?

It all sounds so innocuous to say, "Ali was injured and lost his entire family during the "coalition bombing" in the first days of Operation Iraqi Freedom"......

[Media_Lies_Daily]

13. Most Americans have very short memories...

...they probably have forgotten what ten years of sanctions did to the Iraqi people before our most recent atrocity.

[saigon68]

23. Lori Whatshername on MSNBC

Mindless idiot

[prolesunited]

12. This is so sad

And there are thousands like him out there.

[DuctapeFatwa]

15. Yes there are thousands, but you are only allowed to feel for little Ali

The thousands have no arms, nor is the bush regime making any attempt to get arms for them.

Most of them never even got any painkillers.

[lostnfound]

16. Reawaken the humanity of a freeped-out Rushed-over public

As much as we at DU read this story feel like tossing our lunch over the disgusting (criminal, evil..) fact that our own country imposed this horror on this boy, it's the masses who aren't hearing the truth that need to be reawakened.

I recall when I first read about this boy -- while he was still in an Iraqi hospital -- I was at work; and one of my employees who has a "Bush 2004" sticker in his cubicle happened to drop by shortly afterwards, as I had tears in my eyes. He asked repeatedly, but I didn't explain at the time, why I was crying. But later that day, I printed the story with his photo, and brought it to him. "This is why." So far, though, the 'W 2004' stickers remain.

And I talked to my assistant, one of the many who are W-supporters because they are "pro-life", about the boy also. She was disturbed by it..yet within her value system, Dr. Dobson and the '4000 babies a day' (?) that are killed in abortion convince her to keep her trust in W. This is the reality of popular opinion which we must face. People are so naiive; it is inconceivable to many that corruption could run so deep, or that the political fairytales taught to them in grade school could be so horrible wrong.

I wonder what AlJazeera or the other Arab networks have to say about Ali, or what he says for himself there. I expect it would be more blunt and bleak than this CNN article...

[diamond14]

17. sadly, many educated Americans will vote only on ONE issue

such as shrub's anti-abortion stand....as a life-long Catholic, I can tell you of many Catholics that ONLY voted for shrub because he claims to be anti-abortion..the part they missed is the Commandment: Thou Shall NOT kill...(no exceptions for war, attacks, or anything....the Catholic faith is consistent in preaching the turn-the-other-cheek when attacked..and many Catholics who serve in the military will NOT serve in killing roles...)...yet for some STRANGE reason, even with the Pope telling shrub NOT to kill the Iraqis....Catholics still will vote for the anti-abortion shrub.....

this abortion issue must be presented in a better manner....shrub has highjacked the abortion issue.... and shrub kills mercilessly...kills innocent Iraqi children, kills people on death row with glee...kills people by denying health insurance and sitting on his ass while major hospitals close all over the country (including DC General right in front of the White House)...kills our Veterans by cutting their medical care for their war wounds...kills our seniors by cutting their Medicare, and stealing their retirement funds....

[lostnfound]

18. Catholic school indoctrination on it is INTENSE..

so I suspect that there are millions out there who vote Republican based solely on that one issue.

When confronted by one (and I know several), I wonder how to reach some common ground. For example, I can point out that a Republican who engages the country in war is killing innocent people on behalf of all of us (even while we say 'not in our name', we still pay taxes). Also I can point out that distinctions exist in the material (though perhaps not theological) world between brainwaves and no-brainwaves; and that theological obligations (such as church on Sunday) for believers are not imposed on nonbelievers. Also that a very large percentage of fertilized embryos are naturally lost during the first trimester, so perhaps there are moral/ethical differences between first trimester and later development stages. Or I can suggest that their goal of reducing the number of abortions doesn't actually necessitate making them illegal.

Such dialog requires that I take their concerns seriously, though, which is generally not permitted. So alternatively, I can just shout at them "Right to choose! Right to choose!" which is unfortunately ineffective at bringing them over to "our team".

I agree, it needs to be presented in a better manner.

[ConcernedCanuk]

20. "Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy. --Rambler."

. .

. . The act or practice of a hypocrite; a feigning to be what one is not, or to feel what one does not feel; a dissimulation, or a concealment of one's real character, disposition, or motives; especially, the assuming of false appearance of virtue or religion; a simulation of goodness.


My heart is sickened by all the suffering at the hands of the American Military in the name of righteousness.


I do not blame Ali for his hatred. He is remembered.

[lostnfound]

21. the leaders are hypocrites; but many of the masses are just confused

[ConcernedCanuk]

22. _____ I agree, BUT

. . The "masses" seem to be able to close their eyes to the truth.

But I do make a very distinct differentiation between the American People and their government.

But it is way past time for people to educate themselves about what their government is REALLY up to.

And make their government accountable.

Most of the Americans that have travelled to Europe know they got treated better if they appeared to be Canadian.

And that speaks volumes about what the world thinks of the USA, not many will make the differentiation between a Country's Government and it's people.

Just My Humble Canadian Opinion