Starved Orphans In Iraqi Orphanage Reduce U.S. Troops To Tears

Just more mental anguish for our soldiers. This story will disgust you. Those poor, poor little children.

I'm keeping this story on hand the next time some neocon neonazi decides to pull some of the "but they never report the GOOD over there!" tripe.

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http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/starved-orphans-reduce-troops-to-tears/2007/06/20/1182019197710.html

Baghdad
June 21, 2007

MORE than 20 boys have been found, starved and naked, at a government-run orphanage for special needs children in Iraq.

The harrowing scene at the Baghdad facility reduced some of the US and Iraqi soldiers who found the children to tears.

The 24 boys were found naked and lying on concrete floors, covered in their own excrement, flies and sores. Some were near death.

"I saw children that you could see literally every bone in their body that were so skinny, they had no energy to move whatsoever, no expression on their face," US Army Staff Sergeant Michael Beale told CBS News last week.

Lieutenant Stephen Duperre said the scene was devastating.

"The kids were tied up, naked, covered in their own waste, faeces, and there were three people that were cooking themselves food, but nothing for the kids," he said.

Staff Sergeant Mitchell Gibson said soldiers at first thought the boys were dead when they happened, at random, to peek over a wall into the orphanage.

"They thought they were all dead, so they threw a basketball (to) try to get some attention, and actually one of the kids lifted up their head, tilted it over and just looked and then went back down," he told CBS.

The soldiers believe the boys had been held at the facility in appalling conditions for more than a month.

That was despite the fact that the orphanage was staffed and well stocked with food and even new clothes for the children.

AAP

I don't know how the Iraqi government can function.

occur..we broke it remember!!

and all the money that is going to this waste pit..and money being used like footballs..and their hopsitals are decaying if not destroyed...the schools have been destroyed ..the whole damn infrastructure has been destroyed..we have made those children orphans!!

this disgusts me..to even call myself american anymore..i am disgraced at my nation..bot as a mother and an citizen from this once "proud nation"..now i just feel angry disgust!

fly

I am really getting the whole head on a pole thing. Never really got it before the Bushies. :mad:

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3247

And an article about an Iraqi berating US troops for publicizing the orphanage:

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3282/Iraq_Official_Rebukes_US_on_Orphans_Scandal

Iraqi Official Blasts U.S. Coverage of Baghdad Orphanage Scandal:

Iraqi Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mahmoud Mohammed Al-Sheikh Radhi strongly criticized the publicity surrounding a Baghdad orphanage where U.S. soldiers found mistreated children, saying news reports were exaggerated, and questioned U.S. motives during a press conference in Baghdad today.

“The Labor Ministry in all its officials and employees are responsible only to the Iraqi government, not to U.S. forces,” he told reporters, adding that the center was not an orphanage but a center opened 25 days before the raid for disabled children who are “unable to control their physical activities.” “The manner in which U.S. forces dealt with this incident requires deep analysis,” he said.

Al-Sheikh Radi said the timing of the U.S. raid, which occurred after midnight, raised many questions, adding, “The suffering from electricity outages is a problem everywhere, and the ministry had made great efforts to supply the orphanage with electricity, especially since it was opened recently; the hot weather was what pushed the children to strip naked.” (The Iraqi capital receives only two to four hours of electricity a day – sometimes as little as one hour a day – when summer temperatures reach as high as 125 degrees.)

“The actions of the U.S. military by publicizing are an insult to those children. There were ill intentions prior to these actions,” he said.

more...

:cry: :cry: :cry:

something for the morons that still watch TV and rerun at least every other night?

This we what happens when a legitimate government is overthrown and replaced by one that is subservient to Big Business.

,...would. We destroyed an entire nation, for God's sake!!!

It made my blood boil, no one pointed out that this is what happens when
you destroy a country. The safety net is gone.

Were they trying to get the kid's parents to talk? Was General Miller around?

...

tonight. Pictures of the boys will be seen by millions of Americans. Every democratic candidate for President will be trumpeting this news in all their speeches. Pelosi and Reid will shout it from the well of Congress this very afternoon. Oh yeah. Paris Hilton farted in prison so that story will take precedence. The United States under the Bush/Cheney regime has utterly raped and destroyed Iraq and it's people. And they're doing the same thing here at home.

Ugh.

And just because you are a soldier does not mean you automatically can shut your compassion on and off. If my brother had lived to see such a sight, it would have killed him.

every day.

This is going to stick with those soldiers and I don't expect the lazy MSM to follow the story at all; it's too ugly and inconvenient. :cry:

:cry:

GODDAMNIT!

I blame all

One would think someone would step up to the plate

How about the right wingers who wanted this war and are so protective of blastocytes.