These Are Not My Children

via Think Progress.

Life under Saddam Hussein was not easy. Living under sanctions wasn't easy. The Iraqi people have been suffering for a long time.

How can you look at the picture above and not feel your heart break a little?

Along with freedom and democracy and purple fingers, we've given the next generation of Iraqis plenty of reason to hate us.....

About 70% of primary school students in a Baghdad neighborhood suffer symptoms of trauma-related stress such as bed-wetting or stuttering, according to a survey by the Iraqi Ministry of Health.

The survey of about 2,500 youngsters is the most comprehensive look at how the war is affecting Iraqi children, said Iraq's national mental health adviser and author of the study, Mohammed Al-Aboudi.

"The fighting is happening in the streets in front of our houses and schools," Al-Aboudi said. "This is very difficult for the children to adapt to."

The study is to be released next month. Al-Aboudi discussed the findings with USA TODAY.

Many Iraqi children have to pass dead bodies on the street as they walk to school in the morning, according to a separate report last week by the International Red Cross. Others have seen relatives killed or have been injured in mortar or bomb attacks.

Read the rest.

I try to stay away from the but what about the children manner of reasoning, but this is too much. We've done this.

Our President stands at the podium and says that this is necessary so that American children don't have to see dead bodies and suffer shellings and mortar explosions and know what it's like to have your loved ones killed in war. Well, most American children don't have to experience that. The children of our troops live under the threat of losing a parent ever day that this pigheaded Administration is in power.

I know parents who won't let their precious darlings take the school bus because they don't want them to be exposed to older kids without parental supervision. These parents can't begin to imagine what it would be like to let their children walk to school, much less walk to school in a war zone.

President Bush keeps reminding us that we're in a time of war. But he wants it both ways. He wants us to be afraid and to back him as our war president. But he doesn't want the majority of us to experience the horrors of war. We're to shop and spend and fill our gas tanks with ever pricier gasoline. We're to look away when the liberal media shows us ugly pictures of bloody bodies and human bits scattered over bombing sites. We're to plaster our autos with flags and support the troops magnets and sing God Bless America at baseball games. We're supposed to wear a flag lapel pin instead of a black mourning armband.

American children are no more special than any other child. The scars that we're leaving on the Iraqi children go much deeper and will last much longer than most of us can imagine.

It's time American parents who love their children and want them to have a wonderful future understand that the seeds of hate will grow a world that's a much more dangerous than the one we live in today. By creating a mess of Iraq, George W. Bush has laid the groundwork for the thing that he says he's trying to fight. The terror on 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq, but Bush and his neocon cronies have merged the two and made them one. And our children - all or children's future is much less secure as a result.

Cross-posted at the Politits.

The Hitchens Obsession

Below is a missive cross-posted at my Sex, Lies & Politricks blog. I was fascinated to learn there are whole groups of folks who hate and/or observe every move made by Christopher Hitchens... Furthermore... there are appraently many folks who are angered by the mere thought that any right-wing pol is somehow inherently evil, or that there is such a thing as being too strong on national defense. The vitriol is building... it's so much fun to lay out the bait. Why is it that any single public figure draws so much ire, so much disdain - or worship? Hitchens is just a successful author & writer, not an elected official nor a paid partisan hack like Al Franken. How is his influence so pervasive that it drives folks to the extremes???

--- Media Lizzy

The Hitchens Fantasy

Well, well, well.... it seems I really banged a gong on the fantasy sex life with Christopher Hitchens. For anyone who may believe it's a spoof, a joke, or a lack of medication.... let me be quite clear: Hitchens is Hot.

Brilliant men, even old ones with gout, heart trouble, a drinking problem and 50 extra pounds are hot. Sex is an intellectual pursuit. Physical beauty and pleasure fades, what we are left with is our minds and a desire to share our days with companions who are interesting. Once heart medication is in the picture... do we want a man with an aptitude for the ultimate mindfuck, or a man who stares blandly at the TV screen eating Cheetos??? The sunset of youth, and of life itself should be spent with a man possessing an agile mind. Boredom sucks the very oxygen from the air, and replaces the soul with a husk.

No contest. At least among women making their bones in politics. Men who have lived full lives. Men capable of evolving long after they pass their physical prime. Some fellas are simply too easy to conquer. They become addicted to any lady worth her intellectual and physical salt... which is tiresome. We aren't in Ancient Rome or Greece. I don't want to be deified. It's too much pressure to be the morning sun and evening star to an uncomplicated, unintellectual man.

Enter Christopher Hitchens. And Darth Vader - James Earl Jones. Or Dick Cheney, Marcello Mastroianni, James Carville, Paul Wolfowitz, Gabriel Byrne, Anthony Hopkins, Fred Thompson, Kirk Douglas, Bruce Willis, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Tommy Franks, BB King. And Clark Gable, John Malkovich, Steve McQueen or Yul Brenner. Any woman would love to share her Last Tango with Marlon Brando. Robert Redford - especially in Indecent Proposal & The Horse Whisperer - only realized his full potential after age 50. Robert Evans... I'm young enough to only recall comeback number 54 but Evans is more than the "Kid." Spending a night with Eric Clapton, BRING IT. Or just about any Marine. Semper Fi, Men. And Pat Dollard - Amen. Or, the Governor of Texas: Rick Perry. Jeez, the man is HOT. I've met him... and it should be illegal to be so sexy.

It isn't their age or station that intrigues me - or many of my politico girlfriends. It is a capacity for interesting, inventive thought. An unbridled mind is one worth noticing, and real women prefer to be consumed intellectually just much as we desire a fulfilling sexual relationship.As for younger men who also fit the bill... Kevin McKidd. James Purefoy. Clive Owen. Djimon Hounsou. Darryl Worley. Joaquin Phoenix. Shawn Fago. And a couple of political guys who shall remain nameless.With that, I'll give you my thought for the day - from one of my favorite writers...

It is a stroke of good fortune to find one who is worth seducing... Most
people rush ahead, become engaged or do other stupid things, and in a turnof the
hand everything is over, and they know neither what they have won norwhat they have lost.

~~~ Soren Kierkegaard ~~~

Another of my Hitchens missives: Marry Me, Christopher Hitchens

AND this one which began the banter:
Wolfowitz, Hitchens Earn Most Delicious Status