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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Children's Curiosity Proved All Too Deadly This Time |
| 2004-10-05 |
| Hat tip: Mudville Gazette Article is from Oct. 1, but gives an insight to the depravity of the Islamist Jihadis. For many Iraqi children, a car bombing or mortar strike isn't a tragedy. It's the biggest excitement of the week. They are drawn by billowing smoke, police sirens and the certainty that journalists will soon arrive to interview witnesses. The children flood to the scene, pick through debris, wave to television cameras and interact with the U.S. troops who show up to clear the wreckage. So it was Thursday when scores of children rushed to the site of a suicide car bombing in the working-class Amal district of Baghdad. They marveled at the crater left by the bomb, practiced their English on troops and rode bicycles around the American tanks. They accepted candy from a soldier. Then a second suicide bomber barreled down the street toward the U.S. and Iraqi forces — and the children who surrounded them. And then a third. The children were no longer observers of the attack, but its victims. "I saw dead bodies scattered like sheep," said Rashid Salih, 67, describing the scene where his grandson was killed. Children's shoes, clothing and crumpled red bicycles decorated with feathers littered the street. Iraqi health officials said 35 of the 42 fatalities from Thursday's blasts were children. "What really hurt me was that most of the killed or injured people were children," said Moyad Ismail, 25, who saw the U.S. soldier handing out candy minutes before the second explosion. "The children were making a ring around the soldiers." The disaster sent panic through the neighborhood. By Thursday afternoon, nearby Yarmouk Hospital was overrun with parents roaming the hallways and makeshift emergency rooms, looking for their children. At the morgue, stunned mothers and fathers left with only body parts to take home and bury. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #9 "Can't be helped. Part of hearts and minds." Bull shit! It can be stopped, and it must be. "Decades later, the future leaders of Iraq will remember their interactions with our GI's." Well then, invite them out to the base for a weenie roast, toast some marshmellows & sing a few rousing bars of kumbaya! But handing out candy and encouraging them to flock around our soldiers just gets them killed. |
| Posted by: Mr. Peabody 2004-10-05 9:09:51 PM |
| #8 when are the iraqi's gonna become tired of the insurgents killing their children and stand up for themself? When enough of their children are killed. At what point that will be reached is anybody's guess. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-10-05 5:45:46 PM |
| #7 when are the iraqi's gonna become tired of the insurgents killing their children and stand up for themself? |
| Posted by: smokeysinse 2004-10-05 4:51:24 PM |
| #6 "What sort of jihad is this?" asked Salih, the 67-year-old grandfather. "What sort of religion allows such bad people to commit such hideous, horrible crimes?" Good point, Barbara Skolaut, but it's good that although he's a "moslem," he is NOT identifying with the so-called "jihad." We need a lot more like him. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-10-05 4:36:14 PM |
| #5 BH: The US soldiers need to quit this handing out candy sh*t, too. The soldiers know they are targets for these jihadi f*ckwads, they shouldn't be attracting children to themselves. Can't be helped. Part of hearts and minds. Decades later, the future leaders of Iraq will remember their interactions with our GI's. The kids naturally swarm around our boys. What are our soldiers supposed to do? Beat them off with a stick? Remember - the kids swarmed towards the scene of the explosion. It sounds like the original story about the GI's asking to kids to come over because they were handing out candy is a lie made up by Baathist stringers working for the news agencies. The kids showed up after the first attack to check out the wreckage. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-10-05 4:01:36 PM |
#4 What sort of jihad is this?" asked Salih, the 67-year-old grandfather. "What sort of religion allows such bad people to commit such hideous, horrible crimes?"Yours. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-10-05 3:34:02 PM |
| #3 The US soldiers need to quit this handing out candy sh*t, too. The soldiers know they are targets for these jihadi f*ckwads, they shouldn't be attracting children to themselves. |
| Posted by: BH 2004-10-05 2:46:44 PM |
| #2 This needs to be publicized far and wide. Unfortunately the MSM will remain mum about it unti they can blame it in Blair or Bush.... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-10-05 12:17:32 PM |
| #1 sigh. |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-10-05 12:12:42 PM |