The Littlest Victims Of War

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

(Posted with permission from http://www.saneramblings.com)

The U.S. military last week raided a state run Baghdad orphanage and rescued all of its orphans, 24-boys who were desperately struggling to survive there.

Pictured in the Los Angeles Times story was a tiny naked boy, perhaps 3-years-old, a human skeleton. It appeared this little guy was squatting in his own filth and that he was in dire need of food and care. And I doubt his legs had enough strength to allow him to walk without help.

Knelt over him was a U.S. soldier who it appeared was gently trying to assure and comfort this tiny boy. The picture didn't clearly capture the soldier's face but my guess is he was fighting back tears from this horrific scene.

A scene so sickening, that he and his fellow soldiers will likely have it seared into their hearts to haunt them for the rest of their lives.

The 24-boys ranged in age from 3 to 15, and according to a U.S. military statement, as quoted in the Times, "Most were emaciated and weak, and human waste covered the floors."

"In a room of the orphanage, shelves of food and clean clothing lay untouched, to be hoarded and sold by adult employees, the military alleged."

The Times story quoted Claire Hajaj of the United Nations Children's Fund who pointed out Iraqi casualties are soaring and that "you would be looking at tens of thousands of children losing a parent due to violence in 2006 alone." As these numbers soar, a devastated Iraq would be hard pressed to care for so many orphans.

This story was published as "Starving orphans rescued," 6/21/07 and online published as "Abused orphans found in Baghdad." To read it, please go to http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-orphans21jun21,1,3830149.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=2&cset=true

After I read this story, I wanted to put it in the recycle container in disgust but I couldn't as its nightmarish implications stuck with me. These children, the most vulnerable in any society, have seen death and destruction on a grand scale and on the most delicate, personal of scales.

Most of them have heard people cry out whether in an instant before dying in agony or from the heartache of losing their loved ones. They've seen the splatter of purplish red blood and they've seen body parts strewn around them. They've seen lifeless corpses that used to be family and friends.

And these children have cried themselves to sleep as they think about the parents and brothers and sisters they no longer have and the quality of life they used to live.

As horribly mistreated orphans, they know what it's like to have no-one left to love them, to protect them, to nurture them and to feed and clothe them. There is no-one left to educate them and to plan for their future, or even care if they have a future.

The boys the U.S. military rescued will be transferred to another state run orphanage, again finding themselves extremely vulnerable to the resources and care that staff is able to provide. Many of those children may ultimately be left to fend for themselves growing up on war hardened streets that could bring death in an instant.

And I wonder, of those who survive this terrible ordeal, what kind of people will it produce? What kind of value system will they hold dear, when life has been so cruel to them.

But despite what they have been through, there is something in the human spirit, a goodness that can overcome the most difficult of circumstances. Time and again, history has shown it to us whether from World War 2 era German death camps, such as Auschwitz to the Vietnamese people who survived the American onslaught.

In fact, many survivors from both of these wars found homes in America and built prosperous lives that benefitted the communities that welcomed them.

And I believe America will eventually open its doors to hundreds of thousands of devastated Iraqi families and help them to build new lives here as well. And in the process, allow American families to adopt some of the Iraqi orphans that no-one else loves or wants.

[Zywiec]

1. Children have always been victims in Iraq

During the 90's with the US backed UN sanctions against Saddam, we were responsible for more than 500,000 children dying.

[Karenina]

2. One of the signs of GENOCIDE

Killing off the children...