Unknown Collateral: Iraqi Children

Graphic photos of dead and mutilated babies and children. Not what I expected when I checked in on the folks from the Under The Same Sun blog to see if they had another daily report from the World Tribunal on Iraq held in Istanbul.

[A] 75-foot banner prepared by the Iraqi delegation and composed of harrowing pictures of Iraqi child victims of the war was carried into the courtroom. In the presence of the father of one of the victims shown on the banner … the banner was carried through the hall. The teeming press contingent rushed to photograph the scene as some members of the audience cried.


Bush said last night, “Our progress has been uneven – but progress is being made. We are improving roads, and schools, and health clinics … and working to improve basic services like sanitation, electricity, and water. And together with our allies, we will help the new Iraqi government deliver a better life for its citizens.”


Oh yeah, Mr. Bush? Prove it. According to reporter/blogger Chris Floyd in his post, “In Loco Parentis: Child Abuse in Bush’s Babylon“:


  • Iraq’s child malnutrition rate is now worse than the broken nations of Uganda or Haiti, the Japan Times reports
  • cholera and typhoid are cutting swathes through the population, and are especially virulent in the “stable” areas of the Shiite south
  • epidemics of hepatitis are killing pregnant women
  • Iraq’s children are dwindling and dying twice as fast under the Coalition’s benevolent care than under the despotism of Saddam Hussein
  • The U.N. reports that Iraq has suffered “one of the most dramatic declines in human welfare in recent history” during the occupation, and
  • antibiotics are scarce


Antibiotics are scarce? How much medicine would that missing $8 billion buy? And how far would $8 billion go to give people clean water, which should be the top public health and infrastructure priority?

And how many times did Bush mention the children of Iraq in his speech last night? More below:

And yes, it’s true that Iraq – once a modern and prosperous nation – has suffered “one of the most dramatic declines in human welfare in recent history” during the occupation, as the UN says. But again, this was not part of the liars’ deliberate design. The torment of children was outside the parameters of their “metrics of success.” It was not a factor one way or the other.


In fact, let’s go even further and declare forthrightly that if the liars could have established a client regime and a permanent military presence in Iraq without harming the hair of a single child, they would have done so. If they could have transferred more than $300 billion from the public treasury to the pockets of their family members and business partners without having to concoct a brutal and baseless war of aggression, they would have done so. If they could have legitimized their radical, rapacious domestic agenda without engineering the slaughter of innocent people in order to assume the politically expedient role of “wartime leaders,” they would have done so.


But they couldn’t. So like all murderers, they did whatever they had to do to get what they wanted, regardless of the consequences for others. Like all terrorists, they rationalize their atrocities with noble rhetoric, citing the unassailable righteousness of their cause as justification for the unspeakable evil they unleash. And like all abusers of innocent children, they cover their baser motives with self-serving lies.


– From “In Loco Parentis: Child Abuse in Bush’s Babylon,” by Chris Floyd


Bush’s references to “children” in his speech last night:


  • “Many terrorists who kill innocent men, women, and children on the streets of Baghdad are followers of the same murderous ideology that took the lives of our citizens in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.”
  • “We are removing a source of violence and instability – and laying the foundation of peace for our children and our grandchildren.”


Last night, Bush said:

Thus far, some 40 countries and three international organizations have pledged about 34 billion dollars in assistance for Iraqi reconstruction. More than 80 countries and international organizations recently came together in Brussels to coordinate their efforts to help Iraqis provide for their security and rebuild their country. And next month, donor countries will meet in Jordan to support Iraqi reconstruction.


Fuck that shit. Next month they’re meeting? We “won” this fuckin war in 2003! And they’re “recently” meeting in Brussels? And meeting in July 2005 in Jordan? WTF?


They’ve pledged 34 billion? Fuck that. Show me the money. Show me the clean water. Show me the medicine.


Better yet: Show the children the money, the clean water, the food, the medicine, you dumb fuck.


__________


Cross-posted at DailyKos.