Armless Iraqi Boy -- Ali Abbas

[newsguyatl]

is anyone else here as devastated and heart broken over this little kid as i am? i can barely watch the video of him without choking up... today he and his doctor held a press conference where he actually THANKED the british and kuwaiti government! (yeah, thanks for supporting a war that killed my entire family and left me armless)... how he manages to smile and muster the will to live is amazing to me. i admire him so much.

when he checked into the hospital in london last week, he was sporting a US ARMY hat (a kind gift from the wonderful american empire)... "hell, we took your family and left you crippled for life, take this hat as our apology."

america disgusts me! i get so angry at this injustice i could scream!

the bush cabal has destroyed his life... may they all one day rot in eternal hell (i only wish i believed in one)

[mjb4]

1. I saw him earlier this week

he looked very happy considering what had happened. Maybe he is glad to be alive to plot revenge...you never know...

[Feanorcurufinwe]

2. He is just happy to be the ONE receiving all the publicity

He is just happy to be the ONE receiving all the publicity, and state of the art artificial limbs while the rest of the wounded Iraqi children receive... crutches.

[newsguyatl]

3. yeah, i'm sure

all this publicity he's receiving makes up for the two arms lost, the brothers and sister, mother and father... :eyes:

i sincerely hope you're not that serious...

if you are, you're a sad, pathetic case

[Feanorcurufinwe]

11. You miss my point entirely.

You miss my point entirely. I am not saying he is lucky. I'm saying he is one child out of thousands and most of those thousands are not receiving anything like the help he is getting. What's sad and pathetic is the carnage we have visited upon these innocents.

[LeftistGorilla]

4. Looks like he's coming to Canada....

he will be welcomed here...

[jiacinto]

5. Well then

If you aren't happy with America then why don't you move to a third world country where you have no civil or political rights? Why don't you move to a country where you can't speak against the president/king/prime minister; or one, if you do speak out, where you would be thrown in jail or executed? Then come back and tell me how much "America disgusts you".

I was not in favor of this war, but I am grateful for what I have here. You should be too.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jiacinto]

7. Calling someone a Freeper at DU is against the rules

I am not dumb or underinformed. I just think that you don't appreciate what you have in this country. I really don't. Try living in a third world country and see how much "America disgusts you".

You just don't want an opinion that is different than yours.

[newsguyatl]

8. fine

then report it so it will be deleted...

but before it gets deleted, remember what i said... keep your republican, simplistic comments to yourself! don't respond to me again... your kind sickens me and i have no patience for the idiocy..

[jiacinto]

9. Why is my view Republican?

Only at DU would I be considered a Republican since most of my conservative friends don't see it that way.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

12. The rules

The rules don't prohibit you from saying " you are espousing a Republican viewpoint" but they do prohibit you from saying "you are a Republican". You can't say "you are fucked up" but you can say "your ideas are fucked up"

And you can't say "Fuck you" but you can definately say "Fuck Bush"

[markses]

17. Love it or leave it?

First of all, you know as well as any other that large tracts of "America" (whatever that means) are effectively "third world" (whatever that means) nations with respect to healthcare. All your blubbering about Nickle and Dimed should have told you that, and your endless demographic research should have confirmed it. As for political rights, one would have to notice the difference between hard repression of political dissent from the State (the truncheons, the night raids, the jail cells), and soft repression of political dissent through large-scale ideological apparatuses (say, for example, when an indignant internet chatboy yells "Luv it or Leave it!" if you stray from the party line).

So, on both counts your criticisms are misplaced, simplistic, jingoistic bullshite, without a trace of thought or complexity. However, I do see the point that the initial poster was not very clear. When he said "America disgusts me," it opened the way for your laughable and sophmoric finger-wagging - precisely because it was too broad a claim, and did not specify what it meant by "America" (needless to say, neither did you, jiacinto, as if that vague proper noun should signify something obvious!).

At the end of the day, we would have to notice your brazen thread hijacking. We'll notice that you didn't mention a word about "poor little Ali." His plight is, of course, another story, though certainly one we won't hear from you (I doubt such talk would be acceptable to your conservative friends, unless the positive upshot - HE BEARS NO GRUDGE! - were the main focus of the conversation...)

[bitchkitty]

31. Actually, Carlos -

I have lived in a 3rd world country, and the GOVERNMENT of America disgusts me. What has been done in our name should disgust you as well.

I think he could have qualified his statement a little better, but I don't think that a "love it or leave it" mentality is at all progressive, do you?

[NYC]

15. What kind of attitude is that?

I honestly want to know.

Do you truly recommend that Americans who complain about the U.S. government blowing limbs off children should move to "third world" countries rather than express disapproval?

Should the only people remaining in American be the ones who approve of or at least do not complain about the maiming of children?

[jiacinto]

16. Okay I'll say this much

The fact that this boy lost his arms is very unfortunate. But to then judge all of America by this one incident is unfair, as there are many good things America has done in the world.

[NYC]

19. Agreed, but while we are doing good, we must strive to do no harm.

I doubt there are more than a handful of Americans who can approve of blowing limbs off a child. Most of them just don't give it any real thought. They should, then strive to prevent atrocities like this.

One of the ways to prevent atrocities is to complain about them when they occur.

[IranianDemocrat]

21. He appreciates his country's freedoms so he's a republican?

Interesting logic.

[jiacinto]

22. This is what they resent

They resent the fact that I am not "blaming America first".

[markses]

23. Oh boy..."They"

:eyes:

[diamond14]

25. Revolution is what America is built on...it is our foundation and

our RIGHT to speak out...especially against atrocities committed by our government....a pre-emptive war against Iraqi people that pose NO THREAT TO US...KILLING their children and over 6000 INNOCENT Iraqis because our pResident lied, and panders to big defense contractors...over 200 of our soldiers have DIED for bush* lies...

The reason that I don't move to a third world country is BECAUSE I LOVE AMERICA....and it is that patriotic duty that requires me to STAND UP to the horror that my country has committed against Iraq...dropping napalm, poisoning them for many centuries with depleted uranium...bombing their water treatment plants...

and just in case your forget....many people HERE IN AMERICA have been thrown in jail, and badly injured for speaking out against bush* and his illegal war...others have lost their jobs, careers, and income for speaking out...some have been beaten to death, shot and hit by cars...

wake up...look at what has happened in America...and your attacks against people at DU are very vicious and unacceptable...WE are the Patriots, and those who demand silence, like you, speak as traitors to our great country...your efforts to silence us are WRONG....your efforts to degrade us are WRONG...and your efforts to order us out of America are WRONG...your crap "you should be too" is just unpatriotic garbage spewed out of RW-stinking-thinking....NO, WE SHOULD NOT....having lived in several third world countries, I can tell you loud and clear: AMERICA DISGUST ME....and I am STANDING UP against the scum that demands silence...because I believe that America can do better...

[newsguyatl]

30. thanks

for your post! if only i had the patience to talk to certain morons *ahem* with clarity and reason...

i guess some folks will just never 'get it'...

i'm glad so many here at DU do though...


thanks

[Cronus Protagonist]

10. They gave him armbands as well

I presume he puts them on his ankles using his teeth.


Fuck Bush Buttons — The Cronus Connection

[Mairead]

13. Yes. I am. The maiming of that poor child broke my heart

There is no compensation the US could give him that would be too much.

[jenk]

14. Ali wearing that Army hat is just sickening

it's similar to a Jew who spent years in a concentration camp getting a swastika tattoo

[sugus]

24. Many similar cases.

http://www.aliabbas.net/index.htm

I remember many histories of the Argentine military repression, or the Spanish civil war, in which the children of the assassinated ones, were adopted by the same military assassins and were taught to hate their own parents.

[Valerie5555]

26. Or an AMERICAN EMBASSY HOSTAGE IN IRAN

who ended up having to spend some 400 + days there ILLEGALLY IMPRISONED and away from their families and friends, having to eat bad food there not to mention being physically ROUGHED UP and psychologically TORTURED ending up getting a copy of the HOLY QU'ARAN and THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM upon their release.

[VLC98]

27. bad food....roughed up...psychologically tortured..?

Not quite the same as losing your arms and most of your family is it?

[Valerie5555]

28. Though compared to that, that was TRIVIAL "CRAP" (for lack of a better

word) that was also crap just the same and don't forget when Iran took that embassy they BROKE INTERNATIONAL LAW just the same.


Maybe a better example would be someone losing most of their friends and a few family members when the Trade Centre was bombed for they (the person's family members and friends) were trapped on the top floors, only to be given "blood money" or more likely "hush money" from Shrubya et al.

On edit not to mention that they were set on fire by some flaming debris.

[bitchkitty]

32. Heads up - Iran and Iraq are 2

different countries.

[Valerie5555]

34. And I know NEITHER Iran nor Iraq were to blame for Sept 11

Saudi Arabia is and I bid everyone a reverent good night.

[Minstrel Boy]

18. No horror of this goddamned war

has haunted me more.

The evening I saw his picture, I found this poem:

I Understand There's a Boy in a Baghdad Hospital
by Larry Kearney

this morning I understand that there's
a twelve year old boy

in a hospital in Baghdad.

the word is that last night a missile
hit his flimsy house and killed

his mother, his father, his brothers,
his sisters,

and also blew
his arms off his body.

what color is his room
do you think? with the sun coming up

creeping, what is it shining on?
which bits of chrome, flesh,

fabric? colored water?
is it all right?

will things be all right?

the boy cries because his mother is dead.
and.

and because the nurse
looks at him.

he cries and cries and asks
can you bring back my arms?

I heard this on the radio.
you understand? that question?

can you bring back my arms?

it isn't even a question, is it?
we'd have to say well,

we knew they'd be gone.
some of them anyway.

we'll just have to live with it
won't we.

http://www.counterpunch.org/kearney04082003.html

[newsguyatl]

29. thanks

for sharing this

[VLC98]

20. I'm with you, newsguyatl...

When I first saw Ali, (incredibly on CNN) when he was still in Baghdad, I couldn't stop crying. In fact I became depressed over it for several weeks. I donated money to the Limbless Association and later sent Ali a card and some money, when he had been transferred to Kuwait. I've been obsessed with his progress and, although he seems to be doing really well, I cry every time I see him or read about him. I am disgusted with the US & British governments. I'm British, but live in the US, and my husband is in the AF, so I feel triply guilty. Ali is at least getting the best care possible, unlike the poor little girl I saw on the BBC news tonight. She was 12 years old and had had her leg blown off. Her Mother couldn't afford painkillers or the taxi fare to take her back to the hospital for help. It's a disgrace to the supposed civilized world.

[Tom Kitten]

33. Oh yeah he's in good hands now

And better off, to boot, I'm sure...

In order to save this boy we had to burn his arms off and destroy his family. But hey, he's wearing a US Army cap now so all is well with the world...what we did was ok, right? Let's gloss over the difficulties with what we did, then. After all, look what our hostages went through in Iran 23 years ago.

[Valerie5555]

35. And as if 9 - 11 were a big deal too

for we'll have to be subjected to another year of commemorations of that at "Ground 0" not to mention the BS FILLED movies showing Bushie as acting FIRM, DECISIVE and "PRESIDENTIAL" on that day.


Oh joy oh joy oh funville, am really looking forward to seeing those movies I suspect will be also shown in Canada. <sarcasm off>

On edit what I meant was Ali paid the price BIG TIME for how Americans believed how Saddam flew those blasted planes into the WTC or something like that.