Lest We Forget War is Hell: Armless 12 Year Old Iraqi Boy

subgenius

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Injured Iraqi boy arrives in Kuwait City for emergency medical treatment
A 12-year-old Iraqi boy who lost his arms in a missile explosion has arrived in Kuwait City for emergency treatment.
Ali Ismail Abbas, who became a symbol of Iraqi war suffering, was airlifted from Baghdad.
He suffered severe burns and lost his arms when a missile struck his home in Baghdad, killing his father, brother and pregnant mother.
Doctors say the boy who suffered 20 per cent burns is likely to face a considerable amount of skin grafting.
"The situation is that he's stressed. He needs intravenous fluid and painkillers to allow us to examine him properly," plastic surgeon Imad Najada said, after a quick prognosis.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/middleeast/view/37599/1/.html

I don't want to hear that it was whoever's fault. It is everyone's fault. Just to remember that war is the worst possible resolution of conflict.
What if it were your boy? What if it were you?
 
And this is why

we need organisations like Doctors Without Borders. This is why we need governments to fly in complete field hospitals. This particular young man has become a symbol of hope - as he should, I cannot imagine enduring debriding and the other procedures he's faces in the absence of my family and without anaesthesia - but it seems to me like our media are making him into some kind of "CNN token Iraqi child".

It is astonishing that this particular young man has survived - but in our quest to find an example of the pure courage of the Iraqi people, and their determination to be free, let us not forget those children who did not survive. Let us not forget those orphaned children who will not be welcome in your country or mine in the coming years,

As I said in another thread, I have tried very hard during this conflict to not insult those who have different political opinions to my own. You called us anti-war. You called us socialists. Some of you called us cowards. And yet you will not let us enter Iraq now to offer aid to this shattered nation.

Cowards? I don't think so. We all recognise that this is one of the most dangerous phases in the transition from dictatorship to democracy. We ask to be allowed in with medication and medical equipment - not with anything which could be remotely described as a weapon.

I did not agree with the military action, but it happened. Please let those of us whose only interest is humanitarian help this nation and these people heal.
 
This is a 12 year old boy that was guilty of nothing. His dad and expectant mom are dead.
For all (that's ALL) the dead, dying, and suffering, we should resolve to try to not let it happen again.
 
I would hope that I never implied that the children or the adult casualities of this or any other war were in anyway "at fault" for the pain and anguish they have suffered. I also hope that - in spite of my quite vocal opposition to military action in Iraq at this time - that I have no way implied that the military forces fighting on either side of this conflict somehow "deserve" injury, death, or condemnation. If any of you who have read my posts have been left with the opinion that I have a quarel with anyone other than our respective political representatives, then I am in urgent need of lessons in expressing unopular opinions.
 
Why don't you bump this every day ' lest we forget '..

Maybe you could round up a few pics of abused children in the U.S. ( or anywhere for that matter), and remind us, that mindless harm to anyone is disgraceful..

You can be in charge of GPOD ... 'Gory Picture of the Day'..


Sort of like POM in R&P...


We were all a bunch of heartless bastards, before you straightened us out.. Thank you..
 
Theres a hell of a lot more children in trouble across the world.

40 million face starvation in Africa alone. Yes, little Ali is tragic but the amount of emotional capital that being spent on this ONE casualty is disgusting when seen in the context of the wider world.

look here if you really want to
help

But if youre just making noise to salve your consciences then just leave it alone.
 
Diogenes said:
Why don't you bump this every day ' lest we forget '..

Maybe you could round up a few pics of abused children in the U.S. ( or anywhere for that matter), and remind us, that mindless harm to anyone is disgraceful..

You can be in charge of GPOD ... 'Gorey Picture of the Day'..


Sort of like POM in R&P...


We were all a bunch of heartless bastards, before you straightened us out.. Thank you..
Click to expand...
Sure didn't mean to be self-righteous, and certainly don't think the picture was gory.
 
Re: And this is why

reprise said:


Cowards? I don't think so. We all recognise that this is one of the most dangerous phases in the transition from dictatorship to democracy. We ask to be allowed in with medication and medical equipment - not with anything which could be remotely described as a weapon.

I did not agree with the military action, but it happened. Please let those of us whose only interest is humanitarian help this nation and these people heal.
Click to expand...

Waiting for relative safety in the country so the people can benefit from the aid is not such an unreasonable thing. A dead humanitarian is of no use to anyone.
 
subgenius said:

Sure didn't mean to be self-righteous,

 Kinda' sounded that way.. I apologize if I sounded a bit self- righteous myself..


and certainly don't think the picture was gory.

My bad.. The picture was not gory.. Your choice of title did invoke a gory image.
I was responding to what I perceived as a bit of 'preaching to the choir', with regard to the horrors of war.
Click to expand...
 
Jon_in_london said:
Theres a hell of a lot more children in trouble across the world.

40 million face starvation in Africa alone. Yes, little Ali is tragic but the amount of emotional capital that being spent on this ONE casualty is disgusting when seen in the context of the wider world.

look here if you really want to
help

But if youre just making noise to salve your consciences then just leave it alone.
Click to expand...
Not just emotional capital. There is a horrible inequality of the distribution of medical resources, as you point out.
Not trying to salve consciences, trying to awaken them.
 
Perhaps I am getting the wrong impression here but I think that using this one boy as an argument that this war was unjust is stretching it.

Yes, it is tragic. But shouldn't we look instead at the number of little boys saved today and in the future from Saddam Hussein's dictatorship?

If it was my boy, I would be devastated, but I would know that perhaps his life would still be better anyway. Sometimes focusing on the little picture makes the big picture go blurry. We shouldn't let that happen.
 
tjwojo said:
Perhaps I am getting the wrong impression here but I think that using this one boy as an argument that this war was unjust is stretching it.

Yes, it is tragic. But shouldn't we look instead at the number of little boys saved today and in the future from Saddam Hussein's dictatorship?

If it was my boy, I would be devastated, but I would know that perhaps his life would still be better anyway. Sometimes focusing on the little picture makes the big picture go blurry. We shouldn't let that happen.
Click to expand...
I did not intend to use this to argue that this war was unjust.
 
That kid has more of a chance at some kind of life than these people do..... :(
 
rikzilla said:
That kid has more of a chance at some kind of life than these people do..... :(
Click to expand...
Geez, the kid has a better chance than a lot of others. What is the point of that?
 
subgenius said:

Geez, the kid has a better chance than a lot of others. What is the point of that?
Click to expand...

However, images of this kid (as well as others) have been used by anti-war people to show how horrible the war is for Iraqi civilians. (Do you remember the threads started by a short-lived troll named Moss?)

I'm assuming Rikzilla wanted to show that there would have also been casulties if the invasion had never happened. (i.e. people dying from Saddam's own government). Of course, its hard to have pictures which show what 'might have been', so we are left with horrible pictures showing how evil the American actions were, and nothing to counter them.

(Probably nothing against you or your posting, but more against the 'war is bad, see look at this' crowd.)
 
rikzilla said:
That kid has more of a chance at some kind of life than these people do..... :(
Click to expand...


Yeah, and what kind of life?

A life like some of the parapalegic/quadrapaligic Vietnam Vets?

Reviled by creeps who can't separate the troops from the leaders, abandoned by the government who got them shot ...
 
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