OP-Ed Impact of Military Aggression on Children

February 28, 2009

How does Military Action Impact Young Minds?

A teenager’s viewpoint regarding article by New York Times —
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/world/asia/18afghan.html,

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/02/17/world/20090217AFGHAN_9.html

And concerns about real victims of war i.e. children.

The article that goes along with this picture talks about how the death toll in Afghanistan has risen by over forty percent in 2008. One specific example reported on a man named Syed Mohammed, who’s entire family was slaughtered by American and Afghan soldiers. He went next door to his son’s house, only to find that the only survivor in his entire son’s family was his four year-old grandson, Zarqawi. In another case, an American AC-130 gunship, which is a plane armed with several deadly explosive rounds as well as a gatling cannon, attacked a suspected Taliban building, killing more than 90 people. Mohammed Amin Kadimi, age 47, was pushing a wheelbarrow through a city street, looking for work.

Marai, age 7, was blinded in one eye from shrapnel during fighting between the Taliban and NATO troops.

Photo: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

Spare the Children

A young man approached him carrying a paper bag weighing about ten pounds. He asked him to carry the bag to Pul-e-Khesti, a nearby neighborhood. After some time walking, Mr. Kadimi noticed that the young man was no longer behind him. The bag then exploded, blasting Mr. Kadimi away, mangling his right leg and severing his left one. He now sits on a city street, selling phone cards. He wonders why he was chosen as a target.

When I assess these so-called carnage reports, I am absolutely disgusted. It is appalling that human kind would resort to such violence against one another, and for no valid cause at all. Exemplified in the cases of Marai and Youssif, the boy who’s face was grotesquely deformed by shrapnel from a fragmentation grenade; even children on the cusp of life are subject to such tortures as these. The brutality towards these innocent civilians is inexplicably revolting and inexcusable. No ‘political’ motive should be so great as to put the lives of innocent people at risk.

Youssif, age 5, before explosion (left), and after explosion (right)

Youssif's Images

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