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The first time I saw his photo, it instantly reminded me of the world-famous photo by Nick Ut, and the story of Kim Phuc, the 9 year old Vietnamese war victim fleeing naked, having been napalmed.
Ali Abbas – Iraq's Kim Phuc
(Kim Phuc, Vietnam's napalmed 'poster child', betrayed.)
Today I was deeply disturbed to see on AOL's opening page, the photo and accompanying Associated Press article concerning the severe injuries of the 12 year old Iraqi boy, Ali Ismaeel Abbas. He has lost both arms, suffered extensive burns, and lost 16 members of his family.
The first time I saw his photo, it instantly reminded me of the world-famous photo by Nick Ut, and the story of Kim Phuc, the 9 year old Vietnamese war victim fleeing naked, having been napalmed. That photo was taken on June 8, 1972 and quickly made front page news world-wide, with LIFE magazine giving it full cover page exposure.
Twenty-four years later, in 1996, Kim Phuc spoke at the Veteran’s Day ceremonies in front of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington D.C.
She said:
"As you know, I am the little girl who was running to escape from the napalm fire. I do not want to talk about the war because I cannot change history. I only want you to remember a tragedy of war in order to do things to stop fighting and killing around the world."
Kim Phuc's hopes (not surprisingly) remain unfulfilled, as Ali and the thousands of Iraqi war victims bear testimony to this.
But what has horrified me most about the presentation of this, is the 'sanitised' head-shot photo of Ali, and the fact that the mainstream media has managed to keep this out of the limelight - until now.
What is not mentioned is that Ali has been lying in (in his own words) "Pain for 24 hours a day, which a mountain could not bear…." And this has been for some three weeks. However, his story and uncensored photos have been widely known of, as is proven by the fact that I saw them first, almost two weeks ago, on a website called March for Justice, www.marchforjustice.com
Specifically, one can find the first one (of several over a number of days) under their link 'April 3.'
And I would urge readers to see the uncropped photos revealing the full extent of his injuries. After all, we were not simply 'treated' to a nicely cropped head-shot photo of Kim Phuc in her full agony and horror!
I had also seen uncensored news footage on a foreign (Arabic) TV news report by satellite TV (Channel LINK TV) where Ali spoke, asking "What sort of liberation is this?"
I wait with bated breath for the first appearances of Ali on Western TV, no doubt appearing in a tidy sanitised Kuwait hospital where he has finally been taken to, courtesy of the US military.
The Associated Press reporter concludes his article (as appeared on AOL) with a Kuwaiti hospital doctor stating that, "…four other Iraqi children are being treated at the hospital with war-related injuries such as a lost eye and a gunshot wound in the lung."
My question is, and what of the hundreds and hundreds of other children (and all other civilians), again many disclosed in uncensored photos on March for Justice's website? When will they be taken from a situation where there is no painkillers, no anesthaesia, no medicine, no water?
My other question is, when (if at all) will Ali receive the same unsanitised exposure world-wide, as was the case for Kim Phuc?
[Update on Sunday April 20: One of Britain's Major newspapers, The Mirror, has started a major campaign attempting to raise money to help the Iraqi children, and gives full coverage (including uncensored photos) of Ali Abbas.]
Copyright 2003, David Taub UKpoet.aol.com
David Taub is a member of :
The British organisation ''National Union of Journalists'' (NUJ);
Columnist for the UK magazine ''Poetry Now'';
Freelance writer for various UK and USA magazines;
Co-author of Language of Souls (listed on amazon.com) - Florida Writers Association''s Royal Palm Best Book of the year, 2002 award.
Website: www.ukpoet.cjb.net
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This was so important to write ,
Thankyou
Peggy bertrand
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26714-2003Apr14?
Mahatma Ghandi made a perfect statement that fits to a 'T' this Pyrrhic Victory:
"The Lords of Wrath have perish'd by the blow
Themselves had aim'd at others long ago.
Draw not in haste the sword, which Fate may be,
Will sheathe, hereafter to be drawn on Thee."
I wish the American public could understand the way their government is making them unpopular and responsible for all these killings, massacre, bloodshed, etc in the eyes of the world. The American public believes eveything what they see on their television sets broadcasted by their media channels; i.e., NBC NEWS, CNN, FOX NEWS etc. These news channels along with other many local channels dont show reality about the brutality and cruelty of the American forces sent into the Gulf area. The American media will hype up a show about their forces if one of them dies and will show intrviews of their parents, neighbors, friends, spouses, kids etc. But if these forces kill innocent people, cripple those people for life, demolish their houses and businesses, no one notices. I hope everyone can see it coming now. The world is going to be becoming a much much smaller place for all Americans. If the American government continues to become a dictator and tyrant government, the American public will suffer and will see more attacks on their soil. I hope the American public gets more sensible and looks into the world history as what went wrong in Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan and many more muslim contries which gave America an option to make it worse in these places by playing games with the lives of the local people in these areas. Dont you wonder as why America is helping out Israel at the cost of the entire middle east. Israel is killing inoccent Palestanians and calling them terrrorists, even though Israel is a terrorist state itself. Israel is a country that possesses nuclear, and other weapons of mass destructions. Yet America is going after other smaller countries that cant even defend themselves. Shame on you America, England and Israel. Invading other countries to profit your own businesses, e.g. oil from the middle east will not make it beneficial for you. As long as Israel, America, Europe and other european countries think they can do anything they want, justice will never prevail. Instead more innocents will die and in the end these countries will suffer the most.
I hope that God saves us all from every bad moment. Ameen.
God bless you all. STOP AMERICA FROM KILLING THE INNOCENTS.
The American public is protected from the harm the US Government does.
Then Americans ask; "why do they hate us?"