March 6, 2006

Allegations that US soldiers asked 40 young Iraqi women to show their breasts at a US checkpoint are now apparently being investigated by both the US military and with assistance from local authorities in Mosul.

The Iraqirabita.org website, which first broke the story, has also confirmed this adding that Mosul Mayor Dureid Kashmoula had asked for an investigation.

As hostilities against US forces apparently increased in the wake of the allegations, the US embassy sent a delegation to meet with Kashmoula.

A Captain Tracy Smith is said to be overseeing the investigation. She will meet with the bus driver and the girls over the course of the next few days and hopes to wrap up her investigation within a week.

Anti-terrorism tv ads

In the past two years, advertisements calling for public awareness of crime and terrorism have aired on most Iraqi channels and a few Arab satellite channels.

Some have called for Iraqi unity or lamented the loss of life. Others urged Iraqis to vote.

But today I saw one that was nothing if not a sign of how debilitated and traumatized Iraqi society has become.

Two children aged nine or ten are talking about what their fathers do.

One child says his father works in the Iraqi police force. He tells how his father delivered karate kicks to the "terrorists" and with his partner managed to beat off a group of them.

As the boy tells the story, we see two policemen donning blue outfits fighting off terrorists whose faces are hidden.

"Allah, your father must be very strong," says one of the children.

The scene that shows the same two policemen in a shootout with terrorists. Bullets are flying everywhere as the two policemen manage to shoot and kill the terrorists.

The ad shows the terrorists falling to the floor dead.

When the policemen have only one bullet left between them, one of them looks down the sights of the barrel of his gun and fires it off, killing four terrorists with the one remaining bullet.

The children are amazed by this prowess. Suddenly, the policemen appear before the children and they both rise and salute them.

I found this advertisment to be a sign of the times and an indication of how Iraqi society is broken. To depict so much violence as a supposed story told between children is unbelievable.

To show that children speak so freely and openly of violence indicates that this is something they have been raised on. Thousands of Iraqi children have died since the invasion, some have been tortured in Abu Ghraib (see US military's Taguba report), which leaves me to wonder how much psychological damage has been inflicted on our children.

It is said the young are our future.

If our children are bred on this, how will they build a future of their own in coming years?

Articles on Iraq's children

Violence scars Iraqi children, most recent report on Iraqi children.

Students express some of their fears, drawing whatever comes to mind - sketch after sketch of militant mastermind Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. They all know his name, and face.

"Why is Zarqawi's friend smiling in this picture," the teacher asks?

"Because he blows people up and doesn't care," a child replies.

"We thought when Saddam left, the wars would end and the children would start drawing children's things," said headmistress Lamea Hassan. Read more ...

570,000 Iraqi children need counseling, says UNICEF (2003 report)

Pre-2003 study abysmal

Iraqi children are suffering significant psychological harm due to the threat of war that is hanging over their head. This finding, based on the first ever pre-war psychological field research with children, is powerful evidence that the concern for children’s wellbeing needs to be considered in the decision making process about to take place in the United Nations Security Council. Read more ...

The world lil George of Crawford created.