Cruelty to Children, thanks to U.S. foreign policy

Bridgethought of the Day: Democracy is not cruel, inhuman, or invasive. If actions speak louder than words, and they do, what does it say about us to the rest of the world? Our "democracy" is just another codeword for "hypocrisy." Or so it looks to everyone outside Island America. You can't bring democracy by force.

Case in point: the War in Iraq, and its devastating effect on children there.

Don't get self-righteous so fast, dems. In this eye-opening article on Dahr Jamail's website, you can listen to the Clinton Administration's own Madeline Albright in one of her many compassion-free moments:

By now Iraq has seen a generation of children pass with just survival a
major issue. During the period of economic sanctions imposed on Iraq in the
1990s, more than half a million children died, according to the United
Nations.

In 1996, former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright was asked by
Lesley Stahl on the CBS ླྀ Minutes' show if she thought the price of half a
million dead children was worth it. She replied, "I think this is a very hard
choice, but the price -- we think the price is worth it."

Worth it? And so, apparently, is the Iraq War and its untold millions of refugees, dead, hungry, thirsty, homeless, and virtually everything BUT democratized. Gee, didn't know democracy could be so cruel. But for a good cause! Democracy! Half a million dead children? Worth it!

And so Bush-Cheney just continues to fight the good fight, continue the dream. The casualties? Children...

Ahmed Ali's scathing article about how U.S. operations in Baquba have robbed children there of their childhood, describes how in Iraq:

According to an Oxfam report on Iraq released Jul. 30, "92 percent of
children had learning impediments that are largely attributable to the current
climate of fear. Schools are regularly closed as teachers and pupils are too
fearful to attend. Over 800,000 children may now be out of school, according to
a recent estimate by Save the Children UK -- up from 600,000 in 2004."
The
Oxfam report also said that child malnutrition rates in Iraq have risen from 19
percent before the invasion in 2003, to 28 percent. "More than 11 percent of
newborn babies were born underweight in 2006, compared with 4 percent in
2003."

Not to mention the lack of toys, free time, safety or security ... so what can children in Iraq do in their "spare time" using energy gained from sparse rations? What else do people do in Iraq now that the U.S. invaded?

According to an L.A. Times Article, "More children are doing the bombings and killings in Iraq."

Boys, some as young as 11, now outnumber foreign fighters at U.S.
detention camps in Iraq. Since March, their numbers have risen from 100 to 800,
said Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, the commander of detainee operations.

And with perhaps 2 million + refugees coming out of Iraq, what does the future exactly hold for Iraqi children?

Democracy? Yeah, right.

CHARGES DISMISSED! Now the Downplaying Begins

Finally, some semblance of justice in the long, slow tragedy known as the Torture of Omar Khadr, by the Bush/Cheney-led Anti-Terror Army of God. The long-suffering, young Omar Khadr who was driven to near-if-not-dead-on insanity by the "inept" psycho-torture of American "keepers". On a mere technicality. He's classified an "enemy combatant." But not an "illegal alien enemy combatant." And how, pray tell - or prey tell, as the case may be - do you classify the war in which he "combated" at the age of 15? The War Against Islamism Whatever That Is? So children are fair game for torture, right?


Next step - when? - Goodbye, Gitmo. Goodbye, American Torturers. Goodbye, Child-tormenters. But no goodbyes to Guilt by Association. That's too precious to the still-monolithic neocon "movement". A movement from the bowels of human nature, no doubt. How long will it be before he, an innocent accused of atrocity, victimized by the atrocities of his accusers, be REALLY free? Not now, at least.



He is the icon, the symbol of everything wrong with the so-called War on Terror. That war is not against terror at all. It just wants to be the Chief Terrorizer. If Khadr survives intact psychologically, it will be a true miracle. If not, which is likely the case, who do you think he will combat next? Does he pose a threat worth losing our Constitution for?