Geodog

I first read about this boy on dKos. The backstory is that he lost his entire family in the same bombing that cost him his arms.

Then I saw the image, believe it or not, on Yahoo! News most popular images. And again, surprisingly, in the pages of Time Magazine yesterday.

All I could think of, as I shared the story with the missus on the way home, was how unlikely it is that this boy will be in any way thankful for his newfound "freedom."

Hey Tim,

Perhaps we disagree. That would certainly be fine between friends. Or perhaps this is one of those times when conversation might bring two people together.

Did your protest not die in your throat for a moment when you saw that image? You cannot protest and receive something like that. At least I cannot. And image like that demands my full attention.

I find that protesters and so-called patriots all have that shocked first reaction upon seeing these kinds of images.

We may go right back to our banners and our flags, but there was a moment there when the stark reality of suffering silenced us all.

That is a common, shared moment of humanity. I'm keenly interested in those moments.

I don't know what that common moment might "say" to us, but I know that all of my arguments and ideology took a back seat for one moment.

I know that if we are to learn anything, we must experience the reality of war instead of the rhetoric.

peace,

Preacher,

Perhaps we don't disagree (which we can do) so much as we are talking past each other. Or perhaps we just experience the world differently.

When I saw that picture, that poor tortured boy gamely trying to smile, it summoned up from inside me all the outrage and despair I feel, about war, about man's inhumanity to man in general, about evil tyrants like Hussein who put their own interests above their peoples' interests, and about evil self-righteous men like George W. Bush who bring that kind of destruction down on other people for their own political advantage, in the name of some ideology.

Maybe there was a moment in there that just took in the image, but if there was I lost it in the outrage. That picture was a call to action, a call to what I think your tradition calls "bearing witness."

Bush's War on Iraq is an outrage against humanity. Other (or all) wars may be as well, but this is the one that the country I am a citizen of is currently engaged in. That image requires that I speak out about what is being done in my name.

I hope this explains my thoughts better. I don't know if it actually contradicts what you wrote or not.

Peace be unto you, and all people.

Robert,

Thanks for the back story. Yahoo has changed the story that Daily KOS linked to, but I found it on Reuters.com and excerpted part of it below:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Ali Ismaeel Abbas, 12, was fast asleep when war shattered his life. A missile obliterated his home and most of his family, leaving him orphaned, badly burned and blowing off both his arms.

"It was midnight when the missile fell on us. My father, my mother and my brother died. My mother was five months pregnant," the traumatized boy told Reuters at Baghdad's Kindi hospital.

"Our neighbors pulled me out and brought me here. I was unconscious," he said on Sunday.

In addition to the tragedy of losing his parents, he faces the horror of living handicapped. Thinking about his uncertain future he timidly asked whether he could get artificial arms.

"Can you help get my arms back? Do you think the doctors can get me another pair of hands?" Abbas asked. "If I don't get a pair of hands I will commit suicide," he said with tears spilling down his cheeks.

His aunt, three cousins and three other relatives staying with them were also killed in this week's missile strikes on their house in Diala Bridge district east of Baghdad.

"We didn't want war. I was scared of this war," said Abbas. "Our house was just a poor shack, why did they want to bomb us?" said the young boy, unaware that the area in which he lived was surrounded by military installations.

With a childhood lost and a future clouded by disaster and disability, Abbas poured his heart out as he lay in bed with an improvised wooden cage over his chest to stop his burned flesh touching the bed covers.

"I wanted to become an army officer when I grow up, but not anymore. Now I want to become a doctor, but how can I? I don't have hands," he said.

His aunt, Jamila Abbas, 53, looked after him, feeding him, washing him, comforting him with prayers and repeatedly telling him his parents had gone to heaven.

More at Iraqi Hospitals Offer Snapshot of War Horror

Having read the Preacher's blog, yours, and your comments to each other, I'd have to guess that you don't actually disagree. What I think the Preacher was saying is that the horrific nature of what happened to that boy is enough to give pause to anyone, regardless of their feelings on the war -- you'd have to be without any feelings not to be stunned by the nature of it. More of a "how could this ever happen?" than a "who's to blame". I know that was certainly my first reaction -- stunned silence.