Give us a boy and it'll all be over
I'm busy. So when I checked the news on the web at work for a couple of minutes this morning and saw this photograph, I had to take a second look, but I didn't linger long. This photograph - of the boy from Baghdad with both his arms blown off, unknown medical goop smeared all over his torso, a bandage on his head, and an astonishing expression of loss, terror, and incomprehension on his face. He was hit IN HIS SLEEP IN HIS BEDROOM IN HIS HOME by an American bomb which, he cried out, killed his parents and virtually all his brothers and sisters.
Wouldn't he be better off living for the next ten years under the despicable Saddam than that? What about you? Wouldn't you rather live under Saddam's rule than lose both your arms and your whole family? Maybe you'd rather be dead than that.
Not much time on my hands. So I didn't think much of anything when I saw that photograph - I just felt a twinge of shame and remorse, and got back to work. Forgot about it until just now.
That face. What have we done? If we were to take an American boy and do this to him as a sacrifice to our god, or a price for our victory, would it be worth it? Just one boy? For a glorious victory? For everything we hold most dear? What if we could make a deal: give the judge one American boy's arms and his family, and in return, no more terrorism against Americans ever again. Are we willing to make that deal? Just one boy?
Why are we doing this to hundreds, maybe thousands, of children? Are they worth a few of our tears? Are they worth our looking at them? Ten years from now, will you seek out this boy and explain to him why you think it was necessary?
We're all busy.
I'm busy. So when I checked the news on the web at work for a couple of minutes this morning and saw this photograph, I had to take a second look, but I didn't linger long. This photograph - of the boy from Baghdad with both his arms blown off, unknown medical goop smeared all over his torso, a bandage on his head, and an astonishing expression of loss, terror, and incomprehension on his face. He was hit IN HIS SLEEP IN HIS BEDROOM IN HIS HOME by an American bomb which, he cried out, killed his parents and virtually all his brothers and sisters.
Wouldn't he be better off living for the next ten years under the despicable Saddam than that? What about you? Wouldn't you rather live under Saddam's rule than lose both your arms and your whole family? Maybe you'd rather be dead than that.
Not much time on my hands. So I didn't think much of anything when I saw that photograph - I just felt a twinge of shame and remorse, and got back to work. Forgot about it until just now.
That face. What have we done? If we were to take an American boy and do this to him as a sacrifice to our god, or a price for our victory, would it be worth it? Just one boy? For a glorious victory? For everything we hold most dear? What if we could make a deal: give the judge one American boy's arms and his family, and in return, no more terrorism against Americans ever again. Are we willing to make that deal? Just one boy?
Why are we doing this to hundreds, maybe thousands, of children? Are they worth a few of our tears? Are they worth our looking at them? Ten years from now, will you seek out this boy and explain to him why you think it was necessary?
We're all busy.