Prosthetics for Iraqi children

April 8, 2003 3:00 PM

The Limbless Association has set up a fund to assist Iraqi children who have been rendered amputees by the war. They were prompted by the public response to the plight of 12 year old Ali Ismail Abbas, who lost both his arms (and most of his family) in a missile strike on his house in Baghdad.
posted by homunculus (19 comments total)

Can I be the firs to congratulate the United States on its liberation of Iraqi children from their limbs?
posted by xmutex at 3:18 PM on April 8, 2003

Haha... that's so funny xmutex. Good one. LOL, Rolling on the floor....
posted by Witty at 3:20 PM on April 8, 2003

This is great. This should help some of the kids the USMC just freed from a Iraq Prison in Baghdad.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 3:39 PM on April 8, 2003

You know they freed the children just so they could turn them into a human Voltron, right?
posted by xmutex at 3:41 PM on April 8, 2003

Steve, that's a great article (the part about the kids, not the looters,) but I didn't see anything in it about any of those kids being amputees. Do you have more information?

I may have jumped the gun posting this today: "from the 10th April, the general public will be able to make donations through the website or by telephone directly into the restricted fund set up by the Limbless Association."
posted by homunculus at 3:49 PM on April 8, 2003

good example of how a single photo can do things that no amount of talk can do.

not a bad link to spread around at all.
posted by th3ph17 at 3:53 PM on April 8, 2003

if you care about those silly little bastards who aren't all that happy to lose arms, legs and other very useful body parts during the democratic process of regime change, check out the great work of people like médecins sans frontieres (French name, I know, sorry), the International Campaign to Ban Landmines , and Adopt-A-Minefield

also the Italian surgeons of Emergency are doing a great job


but I didn't see anything in it about any of those kids being amputees. Do you have more information?

well, you don't need info, it's important to just repeat over and over the new RNC talking point: every time treasonous liberals mention Iraqi civilian casualties, horribly maimed children, etc, every good red-white-blue-blooded Republican must derail the discussion, talking about how Iraq is finally free and you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, but finally the godless armies of pacifist Saddam supporters have been defeated. Party hacks like Glenn Reynolds et al do it a little more elegantly, Linnwood does what he can.
posted by matteo at 4:33 PM on April 8, 2003

Helping maimed children is something we can all agree on, regardless of one's opinion on whether or not the war is justified.
posted by homunculus at 6:22 PM on April 8, 2003

I oppose children.
posted by xmutex at 6:23 PM on April 8, 2003

xmutex, you just made me laugh my ass off.
posted by homunculus at 6:31 PM on April 8, 2003

I'm waiting for the "that happens in war, tough luck"-crowd to chime in.
posted by spazzm at 8:56 PM on April 8, 2003

Suzanne Goldenberg witnesses the carnage at Baghdad's Kindi hospital.
posted by homunculus at 12:29 AM on April 9, 2003

THE WEAKNESS OF VIOLENCE

Don't turn away from the picture of Ismail Abbas stay and stare and feel what he is feeling at this moment 12 years old loss of limbs loss of his family.If you are really brave like him and can muster it go ahead and feel compassion for him. Look also at a picture of the fallen American soldier, the American soldiers in the heat of battle. The widow of the fallen American or British soldier. Look also at there children attending a funeral and feel there pain. Do you have children? Put yourself in the shoes of others. Go back and look at the fallen from the WTC disaster and remember how you felt at that time when this event happened- what were you doing on this day? How did you feel? Look at photos from Afghanistan or the photos of Sebastiao Salgado and feel the pain of the people in these photos. The truth of this life on our Earth is calling us all and we have the choice to respond with hate and violence or love and compassion. The lessons reverberate through the history of ages. Calling us to respond in love and not turn away in fear.

The children in Iraq are dying, Iraqi, British and American soldiers are dying. Mothers Fathers and friends are grieving across the planet and have been for generations upon generations. With deep undivided "One Heart Compassion" there is freedom from the misery of the Good and Evil dialectic that our leaders thrill to talk about and perpetuate and so it goes and so it goes. The Peace Protesters with there Anti Bush and other Anti signs continue to perpetuate it.

And many of leaders perpetuate continue to perpetuate it. And so it goes, And so it goes. True Peace and true feedom is in the "One Heart" not in thinking our way out of the problem. In the mind everything is just collateral damage. In the heart is Peace and Compassion only.

There is a call that echos across the ages that the leaders, soldiers and people on both sides can read it in there sacred texts if they would really listen. Ultimately it comes down to each of us to get out of this dialectic bullshit of Good and Evil Mindset and into the space of the "One" the Heart.

The message is so powerful and is the reason why so many of the "One Hearted" people have been killed through the ages. Stop at nothing to make all attempts necessary to cultivate this in your own life. I'm doing the best I can in my own life to do the same.

THE WEAKNESS OF VIOLENCE

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Do not maintain anger or hatred. As soon as anger and hatred arise, practice the meditation on compassion in order to deeply understand the persons who have caused anger and hatred. Learn to look at other beings with the eyes of compassion." Thich Nhat Hanh

I have so much to learn.
posted by thedailygrowl at 1:36 AM on April 9, 2003

I aspire to be as clever and subversive as xmutex.
posted by internook at 1:42 AM on April 9, 2003

So with at least 2 UK newspapers (mirror and freebie Metro) also collecting for the poor bugger to have prosthetics, can he look forward to his own 'Imelda Marcos' style walk-in wardrobe of false arms?
posted by biffa at 3:15 AM on April 9, 2003

"from the 10th April, the general public will be able to make donations through the website or by telephone directly into the restricted fund set up by the Limbless Association."

The site is working today....
posted by jalexei at 5:04 AM on April 9, 2003

I'm so proud that this country produced Martin Luther King, Jr. Thanks, dailygrowl.
posted by Holden at 11:15 AM on April 9, 2003

Dr. Saleh had begun to weep, and I could hear him catching his breath. He tried to compose himself, and we said goodbye to Ali. Neither of us spoke as we walked down the hall to the sterile room, where the orderlies took off our smocks and masks. Dr. Saleh rubbed his eyes and cleared his throat several times. We went back to his office, and he washed his face in a sink. “So it’s untrue what they say about doctors being able to suspend their emotions,” I said.

He looked at me. His eyes were pink. “We are human beings,” he replied. He explained that Ali knew that he had lost his arms, but that he had not acknowledged it yet: “He is conscious. He can see the stumps.” Ali would likely die within three weeks.

From this week's New Yorker.



.
posted by Guy Smiley at 12:34 AM on April 10, 2003

The horrifying situation of amputees in Iraq
posted by homunculus at 10:29 AM on April 10, 2003