children and occupation

Two nights ago I was looking for photos of Iraqi children, to use as part of Project Occupation—a series of ongoing actions aimed at ending the funding of the war and occupation of Iraq. I had to stop after just a few minutes. The images were sickening. Somehow I know it’s not true but I can’t help but think that if anyone looked at those photographs, there is no way they could support this war. I am so fucking angry that this is happening, that this is continuing. I am so sad. And I am so disgusted.

Senator Salazar finally responded to our requests that he work to stop the funding of the war and act to prevent a future attack on Iran. He ignored the second request. He didn’t exactly even address the first question; essentially he said that he supports the continuation of the occupation. He laid blame on the administration for mishandling the war but never once admitted it was wrong in the first place or that it should end.

I was at the office that the senator uses here in Fort Collins again on Thursday, as part of a day of elevated presence in offices across the U.S. I talked with the senator’s regional representative in the office and we had a good discussion. Throughout the day, different people came in and stayed an hour, so that there was a presence all day long. We brought in the photos of Iraqi children (no shocking ones, mostly just pictures of kids—although some were in hospital settings) and the regional representative said that he would send them to the office in D.C.

When I looked at the photos, I thought immediately of the children in Palestine, the kids I met in Nablus, in Balata camp, and in Askar Jadeed and Askar Cadeem camps. This is the reality of war. Children. These are the true casualties of war and occupation. Whole generations of Palestinians have no childhood. Young children literally get shot on the streets of refugee camps, families lose mothers and fathers, and children grow up with no hope for the future. Can you imagine what it would be like to live without hope? Without hope for the future, for your family, for yourself?

I read in an article from 2004 that an estimated 47% of Iraqis killed in this war are children under the age of 15. About 60% of Iraq’s population of approximately 24 million are children. That is all the reason anyone needs to be completely against this war and occupation. Besides this war resulting in an estimated 655,000 Iraqis killed, more than 3,000 U.S. soldiers killed, hundreds of thousands of wounded Iraqis and Americans, and about 4 million Iraqi refugees, the U.S. is creating a generation of children without hope.