The story of a 12 year old Iraqi boy...

[p_p_man]

whose favourite films are 'Home Alone' and 'Spiderman' and who craves for a Sony PlayStation...

But don't lose any sleep over him, he may be dead next month...

Sorry folks, I can't get the link to work, but the story is in today's Guardian.

 

[Viper Vic]

If he isn't a human shield he will probably get his wish. Whereas millions of Westerners won't get a VX or Anthrax surprise package in their stocking. Because sadamn and OBL will be taking a dirt nap. They will have assumed room temperture.

 

[p_p_man]

"Waiting for war: the boy who was born as first bombs fell last time

Suzanne Goldenberg in Baghdad
Friday March 7, 2003
The Guardian

Hamza al-Gahnem is 12 years old, and lives in building number 32 in an estate with 55 identical seven-storey buildings. He likes football, and pines for a Sony PlayStation, but what he wants most of all is to meet Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, so he can tell him the story of his birthday.
It's one Hamza never tires of hearing. He came into this world on January 17 1991 - the first night of American bombing in the last Gulf war. The first 40 days of babyhood he spent in an underground shelter.

Hamza, like the rest of Iraq, could soon relive experiences he was too small to remember, as his country stands once more on the brink of a possible war. Today, the security council is to hear the latest report from the chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, on whether Iraq has demonstrated true willingness to abandon its weapons of mass destruction. Britain is promoting a compromise resolution designed to mend the rift in the security council over whether to follow America into an early war, or give Mr Blix more time for his inspections, and Iraq a last chance to disarm.

Hamza is too young fully to understand the struggles of international diplomacy. Within his child's world, Hamza appears to have mustered his own defences against these international tensions -though his mother, Wisal al-Gahnem, complains that the adult conversations around him have left her eldest child fretful and distracted.

"I do think about the war," Hamza says. "But I don't think there is going to be one. It is just a rumour."

War, and the threat of war, have dominated Hamza's life. During the build-up to the last Gulf war, his expectant mother was alone in this complex of flats in central Baghdad.

His father, Abdul Khalak al-Gahnem, was in Basra, near the Kuwaiti border. He had been called up for compulsory service in 1983, during the earlier war against Iran, and though he was badly wounded by an artillery shell that exploded at his feet, he was not released from service.

During that winter of 1991, America's deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait was looming, and Mr al-Gahnem was frantic with worry for his pregnant wife. By January 16 1991 Wisal was more than a week past her due date.

Alone in the rented two-bedroom flat, Wisal felt the first labour pains when missiles struck the government installations not far from the estate after 2am. Her neighbours bundled into the shelter, and told her to hold off until daylight, when it would be safer to find a car, and to get her to al-Alwiyah, Baghdad's main maternity hospital.

The hospital was in chaos. "The moment Hamza was born everybody ran down to the shelter, and left me alone without even cutting the umbilical cord," she says. "There was no electricity, the heating had stopped, the windows were broken, it was very cold, and he was naked. I thought the bombs were falling directly on top of us."

Hamza was among the lucky. Dr Jawad Zayer, who heads the neo-natal unit at the hospital, says many newborns were lost in the early days of that war, especially those born prematurely when oxygen and incubators failed.

Ms al-Gahnem made it home with Hamza, and to the shelter, shared with about 300 others. Hamza cried for three days.

She remains convinced that those first experiences left an imprint. Hamza was clingier than her other babies and remains more serious now, keeping aloof from the chatter of his five brothers and sisters.

He does well at school, starts his homework without complaining, and stands out at football, captaining the team from building number 32.

Hamza's parents feel sorry for a generation that has never known the prosperity in which they grew up in the 1970s after Iraq nationalised the oil industry.

Hamza's father, Abdel Khalak, earns enough as a taxi driver to feed his family, thanks to the government rations that are distributed to every Iraqi. But he can never hope to move out of the rented flat to a house with a garden.

"There are very different standards of living now between the Iraqi peo ple," says Wisal. "The things that children want nowadays are very expensive. Where we wanted dolls, they want computers, and I feel bad that we can't buy it."

None of this matters terribly to Hamza. He remains quiet as his younger brother, Abbas, compares the prices of used and new Sony PlayStations.

But still he feels overlooked. Most of his friends don't even know the story of his birthday. In the Iraqi calendar, which makes a point of involving children in anniversaries of revolutions, no activities mark the start of the last war against America.

That is why it is so important to Hamza to meet President Saddam. The Iraqi leader, he is convinced, will immediately recognise that he is special, and to illustrate Hamza pulls out a class composition on Saddam Hussein.

"You are the beat of my heart, and nicer than the days of Eid," he reads. "You are the secret of creativity, and you are like a shadow protecting me always. You are like the magic of an angel and sir, you are dearer than my life. That is why we say: 'Yes, yes, Saddam Hussein'."

Despite his conviction that his birthday marks him out for a grand future, he knows little about what led to the war. He has studied the eight-year war against Iran in his civics class, but they haven't yet reached the last Gulf war. He only knows it was about America - just as it is this time. "They want our land and our oil. They have a lot of cars, and petrol is very expensive there, much more than here, that is why they want to take it," he says.

He does not hate America. His favourite movies are Home Alone and Spiderman. But while he cannot quite conjure up an image of that country, he says its greed has made it Iraq's enemy. That enmity, in turn, is what has defined him.

"This is a special generation in many ways. They are oppressed greatly because of US policy. Food and medicine is not available because of sanctions," says Wisal al-Gahnem."

ppman

 

[cliffchuff]

Whereas millions of Westerners won't get a VX or Anthrax surprise package in their stocking.

Trust Bush to be a tightarse now, he was giving them out to all and sundry last year.

Guess he need to save for the povery caused by spending billions on trying to get re-elected through genocide.

 

[brokenbrainwave]

If he isn't a human shield he will probably get his wish. Whereas millions of Westerners won't get a VX or Anthrax surprise package in their stocking. Because sadamn and OBL will be taking a dirt nap. They will have assumed room temperture.

Propoganda is a wonderful thing. It drives the masses into a feeding frenzy making them see through rose colored glasses at a jaded viewpoint spewed by their leader.


Just like the United States reasoning to use an A-bomb in WW2. Or was that not considered a WMD?

 

[Texan]

Just like the United States reasoning to use an A-bomb in WW2. Or was that not considered a WMD?

The use of the A-bomb in WW2 saved more lives than it took, on both sides of the war. That is exactly the same reason for taking out Saddam today.

There are good reasons for going to war, and good reasons for not doing it now. Rational people can be on either side of the issue. However, rational people on both sides need to be careful of the "logic" and "emotion" they use in trying to justify their positions.

The A-bomb arguement doesn't work.

just my opinion.

 

[brokenbrainwave]

The use of the A-bomb in WW2 saved more lives than it took, on both sides of the war. That is exactly the same reason for taking out Saddam today.

There are good reasons for going to war, and good reasons for not doing it now. Rational people can be on either side of the issue. However, rational people on both sides need to be careful of the "logic" and "emotion" they use in trying to justify their positions.

The A-bomb arguement doesn't work.

just my opinion.

you have yours, I have mine. Either way no one can dispute the US is the only nation to use such a weapon on another country.

Now to this statement "That is exactly the same reason for taking out Saddam today". Surely you jest. The man, while yes in defiance of 1441 and yes more than likely in possesion of some messed up stuff, cannot pass gas without it being tested for mustard. He is contained. That is the point the pro war folks seem to miss. Seriously, what is he capable of doing? What has he done that justifies putting our sons and daughters in harms way? I am not so much anti war as I am anti American involvement here. Really, its none of our business. We are not the worlds protectors or police force.

Lets examine something Bush, whom I honestly feel is a decent and good man and thinks he is doing the right thing, said last night. To paraphrase he wants to handle North Korea with diplomacy. Honestly, I would be in support of a showdown with North Korea if they continue to rachet up the stakes. They are a credible threat. They posses nukes capable of hitting the west coast. They have sold technology to terrorists. Yet your president wants discussion and the region to handle its own problem.

This sounds amazingly like what I've said should happen in the Middle East. There are ways of making it happen without blowing up innocent peoples homes.

That makes us no better than the terrorists we supposedly are after...

 

[teddybear4play]

The man, while yes in defiance of 1441 and yes more than likely in possesion of some messed up stuff, cannot pass gas without it being tested for mustard. He is contained.

While I don't agree, that was a funny line.

That is the point the pro war folks seem to miss. Seriously, what is he capable of doing? What has he done that justifies putting our sons and daughters in harms way?

Defying 1441.

TB4p

 

[brokenbrainwave]

Defying 1441.

can anyone give a solid reason why North Korea is a regional issue, yet Iraq is not?

If it was not so important over the last how ever many resolutions, then why the big deal now.

 

[teddybear4play]

Why now is because of 9/11. We live in a different world now.

And I'm with you on North Korea. I'm assuming the Administration has good reasons for wanting to use the carrot with Kim Jong Il but the stick with Saddam Hussein, but I can't think of any. I would think it's because NK has those weapons and Iraq doesn't, but then, if they have weapons that can hit America's west coast, they're much less of a "regional" threat than Iraq is. Perhaps the "regional" refers to the fact that NK is surrounded by a lot more buffer zones, like South Korea, Japan, Russia, and China, whereas Iraq has no neighbors who can act as a check on their power.

If Bush is pressing for the world to lay their cards on the table, he should really start with his own. The North Korea/Iraq credibility gap is something the rest of the world will question soon if they haven't already.

TB4p

 

[p_p_man]

Why now is because of 9/11. We live in a different world now.
TB4p

You may but the rest of us don't...

It's still the same old terrorist infiltrated place it has been for many a long decade...

That's why Bush's attempts at linking everything baaad to terrorism is a joke, that's why Bush's conviction that there will be an end to terrorism is a bigger one...

ppman

 

[Worm]

..

To punish some "citizens" for their crimes the Iraqi government tortures their innocent children and forces them to watch. Think about those kids also.

 

[bluespoke]

[BThat is why it is so important to Hamza to meet President Saddam. The Iraqi leader, he is convinced, will immediately recognise that he is special, and to illustrate Hamza pulls out a class composition on Saddam Hussein.

"You are the beat of my heart, and nicer than the days of Eid," he reads. "You are the secret of creativity, and you are like a shadow protecting me always. You are like the magic of an angel and sir, you are dearer than my life. That is why we say: 'Yes, yes, Saddam Hussein'."

[/B]

Saddam couldn't have written it better himself.

Are we sure he didn't?

Propaganda, propaganda, propaganda.

 

[p_p_man]

Re: ..

To punish some "citizens" for their crimes the Iraqi government tortures their innocent children and forces them to watch. Think about those kids also.

So what's your point?

That Saddam is evil? We all know that.

Or that America is going to save those children by bombing the hell out of everyone else?

ppman

 

[Worm]

Re: Re: ..

So what's your point?

That Saddam is evil? We all know that.

Or that America is going to save those children by bombing the hell out of everyone else?

ppman

My point is that those children need to be saved period.....Is it worth the risk of civillian casualities? I dunno, I guess history will tell but it seems they can't be much worse off then they are.

 

[p_p_man]

Re: Re: Re: ..

My point is that those children need to be saved period.....Is it worth the risk of civillian casualities? I dunno, I guess history will tell but it seems they can't be much worse off then they are.

No they can't, but untold thousands (if the firepower the US will use is as great as we are led to believe) will be.

Nobody wants to see innocent people suffer but to use that as an argument to go to war is playing God.

What's better, the suffering of the few or the suffering of the many...

ppman