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In Case You Missed It: Polly Mann’s Speech at the RNC Protest
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photo © CircleVision.org |
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WAMM co-founder Polly Mann speaking before the march on Labor Day. |
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For several years I have been walking around the Lake of the Isles with a sign around my neck reading, “U.S. TROOPS OUT NOW.” The responses of agreement I receive include smiles, a gesture of thumbs up, handshakes and “thank you’s.” These positive responses have increased over the years. Recently, however, as I examined U.S. policy on Iraq as it affects children I decided I needed a new message. Following is some of the information that I found:
1. As a result of the years of U.S. sanctions prior to the invasion, over 500,000 Iraqi children have died.
2. Over 50,000 Iraqi children have been killed by U.S. “smart” bombs – that obviously have been misdirected.
3. There are 4 million orphans, out of a population of 28 million Iraqis.
4. A recent UNICEF report states that 25% of Iraqi children between the ages of six months and five years suffer from either acute or chronic malnutrition.
5. According to a study conducted by Iraq’s Health Ministry in cooperation with a Norwegian institute and the U.N. Development Program, roughly 400,000 Iraqi children suffer from “wasting,” a condition characterized by chronic diarrhea and dangerous deficiencies of protein.
6. In the city of Sulamaniyah, young children assist their families in searching the city garbage dumps for usable items which are then resold to augment the family income. In Baghdad children have been living with their families in the main garbage dump since December, 2004.
7. Poverty has sharply increased. The children of Iraqi families living on the economic edge suffer increasingly from lack of minimal nutrition and health care. Most often a family’s income is destroyed along with the family’s bread-winner.
8. A supplemental report to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child revealed that to date nearly 2500 youths under the age of 18 have been held in U.S.-run incarceration facilities overseas. As of April 2008, there were approximately 500 youths being held in U.S.-run detention facilities in Iraq.
9. The perceived unjust detention of Iraqi males, including youths, for suspected activities against the occupying forces has become a leading cause for the mounting frustration among Iraqi youth leading to their radicalization.
10. The starvation, detention, sexual assault, torture and slaughter of Iraqi children by U.S. soldiers or via U.S. foreign policy, is not new. Granted, the present U.S. administration has been criminally guilty, but the Clinton administration played an equally devastating role in the assault on the children of Iraq.
After looking at this information I decided the sign I wore around my neck on my walk around the lake should address this issue. So I changed it to a black-bordered sign reading, “5 MILLION ORPHANS IN IRAQ.” But as I walked I no longer received the affirmation of my “U.S. TROOPS OUT NOW” sign. Rather, people refused to meet my eye, looked away, and tried to ignore it. This puzzled me. After thinking about it for several days I decided that these walkers felt as I do – ashamed - ashamed of their government. It’s high time that that shame be removed from us and that all U.S. troops from all over the world be brought home. wx. |
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No Comment
“Half the Iraqi population is under the age of 15. These kids really need something to do.”
—President Bush’s deputy undersecretary of defense for business transformation explaining plans for the construction in Baghdad of a massive Disney-like amusement park featuring hotels, lagoons, ride, etc. A Los Angeles-based private equity firm will put up $500 million to build the enterprise on a 50-acre plot adjacent to Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone. (Source: Jim Hightower’s LOWDOWN, June, 2008)
“We can’t let little countries screw around with big companies like this—companies that have made big investments around the world.”
—a Chevron lobbyist, who asked not to be identified, speaking about a lawsuit brought on behalf of thousands of Indigenous Ecuadorian peasants over the dumping of billions of gallons of toxic oil wastes into their region’s rivers and streams. Chevron is pressuring the
Bush administration to eliminate special trade preferences for Ecuador if its government
doesn’t quash the case. (Source: Newsweek)
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© 2008 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete October 2008 Index - click here
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