Wednesday August 28 2013
This blog will stray from its focus
on my life in Midden Harbour when something in the news beyond my little town
resonates in a way that I cannot ignore.
Today that something is the response to the use of chemical
weapons in Syria. The claim that they
have been used seems uncontested. The
culprit, however, has yet to be determined although current evidence points to
the Assad Regime. But it is not who used
the chemicals or if they were used that caught my ear and mind, but rather the
tone of condemnation, particularly from the American government, about the
horrific suffering of those attacked.
Listening to Secretary of State, John Kerry, express outrage,
I could not help but wonder where that emotion was in 2003.
On March 19 2003, the
United States military, augmented by George Bush’s “coalition of the willing”
began the invasion of Iraq with what Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld
gleefully called “Shock and Awe.” What Shock
and Awe consisted of, at least in part, was the bombing of Bagdad, including
residential areas. Untold numbers of
innocent children, and women and elderly and entire families were decimated by
this action. The tragic poster boy for
this was Ali Ismail Abbas (pictured
below), a 12 year old who lost both his arms, his parents, a brother, and 13
other members of his family when an American missile hit his home.
I wonder what Mr. Abbas, now 22, thinks when he hears
Secretary Kerry’s outrage?
It was a regular Wednesday at The Shoreline, and in Midden
Harbour.
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