On Mon, 17 May 2004 20:47:27 -0400, JDG <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I just finished a beautiful book written by the Baptist Chaplain for the > First Marine division in Baghdad. If anyone has the chance to read it, I > seriously recommend it. Although written from a Protestant perspective, it > has beautiful things to say about the divine Providence of God and > marvelous testimonies of how the hand of God was manifested during the war. > Maybe the war was a mistake - I don't always agree with George Bush and his > advisees. However, I cannot erase from my mind the story the chaplain tells > of rolling into Baghdad and liberating a prison filled with children. > > Saddam had seized and imprisoned the children of the parents who opposed > his regime and put them into prison until they reached 15 or 16. After > that, they were forcibly conscripted into the Iraqi Army, most likely to > die. These people had no choice. I had no idea that this prison even > existed. The chaplain goes on to write about his numerous touching > encounters with the poor and starved Iraqi people. Granted, there are many > evil insurgents and anti-American hostile Iraqis out there - but a large > majority of the population has been tormented by Saddam. At least we can > say we got rid of a heinously evil man and a horribly repressive regime. > > There is an old quote - which I can't recall - which states that freedom > has a taste to the enslaved that those who have been born free will never > know. I would say we did something right - if we liberated this people from > the heinous machinations of a dictator. It wasn't until I read this book > that I realized that these men and women truly believe they are fighting > for a noble cause. Another quote I found today stated that sometimes not > fighting against a heinous and terrible evil is worse than war. > > Maybe we could have done this differently - I desperately hope for the > fighting to end and the troops to come home. I don't like the fact that we > went in there with no discernable backup plan to substitute for a crumbling > regime. However, I do cheer the troops and their defense of the rights of > the innocent Iraqi people. Even those like myself, who are somewhat opposed > to Bush's policies in Iraq, can say we did a good thing by giving them > freedom from Saddam's horror. > > *************************************** > > JDG - "What freedom?", Maru
The story of the children's prison sounds like the story of one in Baghdad that was revealed to be an orphanage. The victim of a mistaken impression of American's knowing knothing about the country months ago. This was debated in the right and left bloghemospheres just under a year ago. I am not sure to any conclusions as the right finally used Scott Ritter, who they normally want to string up, as a reliable source that it was a prison because he said that Saddam did have children's prisons. Not conclusive of anything as many Arab countries have them. (Pakistan was written up for it's poor ones recently.) Liberating Iraq could have been, should have been a noble cause - Bush FUBAR. We lost the war when former supporters say we should just go even if it means chaos, when 40% of the people say it is sometimes OK to take arms against the Americans. It is time to reflect on what to do now, how we should have done it, what went wrong. Our own regime gets an F on reflection so a new one has to come in. "Al Rahma, an orphanage in northern Baghdad, was run by the state under Saddam Hussein, but is now run by clerics from the Shiite Muslim town of Najaf. They took control of the institution four days after American forces liberated Baghdad in April. "The orphanage had been home to 107 girls and boys whose parents were killed or imprisoned, or were unable to care for them. As the Americans advanced on Baghdad, they mistook the orphanage for a jail or prison and released all the children who were there. ... "Many children who have not returned have resorted to life on the streets, begging for food or money, or perhaps turning to drugs or prostitution. http://atrios.blogspot.com/2003_07_06_atrios_archive.html#105759046771604880 gary - reflecting maru
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