Reading this story made me so sad for the children of Iraq many of whom have no hope and no future. After reading this story, who with a heart will be able to remain silent as the devastation of Iraq continues? What crime did these children commit other than being born in a country with United States oil under their sand?
The plight of these children is a war crime and Bush and Cheney are no better than the despotic leaders they rail against. While their cronies get rich the children of Iraq are left to suffer and die and then we wonder why they hate us. If impeachment is off the table then those at the table need to be replaced. How can we as a nation tell our future generations that we did nothing to stop a despotic moron and his henchmen and expect them to understand. Doing nothing means admitting that this great experiment called American democracy has failed and the reason for its failure is apathy.
The head of Iraq's main humanitarian group said an 18-year-old approached him with a baby suffering from leukemia. The desperate mother said she'd do "anything" for treatment for her child -- and then offered herself up for sex.Can any of us even imagine the situation of this mother? Can you imagine watching your child slowly die and there is nothing you can do and no one available to help. This is hell on earth.
Said Ismail Hakki breaks down in tears as he recalls that story. Leukemia can be treatable to a degree in much of the world, but not in Iraq. The baby died two months later.
"It shook me like hell," said Hakki, the president of the Iraqi Red Crescent. "All my life I've been a surgeon. I've seen blood; I've seen death. That never shook me -- none whatsoever. But when I see the suffering of those people, that really shook me."
The plight of Iraq's children is nearing epidemic proportions, he said, with mothers and fathers abandoning their children "because they're becoming a liability." The parents don't do it out of convenience, they do it out of desperation.
Hakki says Red Crescent has the monumental task of treating and feeding more than 1.6 million children under the age of 12 who have become homeless in their own country. That's roughly 70 percent of the estimated 2.3 million Iraqis who are homeless inside Iraq.1.6 million children in Iraq is roughly 8% of the total population. If the same percentage of US children were homeless that would be 24 million homeless children. Can we ever imagine a day when that would happen?
We must all remember that this is being done in our names. The death and destruction must stop. The Iraqi children need peace and stability. They need to be educated, fed and loved. What we want for our own children we must demand for them. Doing anything less is criminal.