Helping the children of Iraq

Photo: May 31, 2008 file photo of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. May 31, 2008 file photo of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, the new owners of the Miraval property in Correns, near Brignoles, southern France. French law is tough on paparazzi, especially when they snap stars' children. The law might come in handy after the birth of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's twins _ particularly if, as reports say, they hope to turn the tables on the paparazzi by selling rights to the first baby pictures for millions of dollars.

(Matt Sayles / AP Photo)

Recently, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt decided to donate one million dollars to help the children of Iraq. They are doing this via the Jolie-Pitt Foundation. Not too long ago, Angelina went in front of a UN group to appeal for aid for Iraqi children, and got some publicity out of that. I applaud her efforts, and I wish I had a million dollars to give to children in Iraq. This money will be directed towards the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, and will help Iraqi children who have lost parents, homes or educational opportunities.

I hope others will follow their example in being generous and in adopting children. I rather hope others will not follow their example in having three children of their own – and I feel that way because the world is very much over-populated. They just had the birth of their twins, and I am very happy that the twins are healthy. I bet they are awesome too! But, we need to limit the number of people on this planet........

Anyway, back to the children of Iraq:

UNICEF is also working to help the children of Iraq – specifically, those in Sadr City. During April and May of this year, the children of Sadr City were trapped inside their homes in the middle of a battlefield. UNICEF stated that this meant one million children were not able to go to school or go out to play. It also meant limited access to any health care. The article about this says that two hospitals were closed, as were local clinics.

Now, in light of a million children impacted from the recent fighting in Sadr City alone, the million dollar donation from Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt does not look like it will go very far. It sure will go further than the much, much smaller amount that I am able to give, that’s for sure!

UNICEF is trying to restore services and routines in Sadr City, and they are tanking in water and trying to establish child-friendly spaces there. I cannot imagine trying to tank in water for over 2 million people, but I guess there is no other way to get clean water to these folks.

I wonder if the evil fools who started this war, and the evil fools who voted for it in the US Congress, and the evil fools who cheered it on in America, even realize (even a little bit) just how bad things are in Iraq.

Tens of millions of lives have been destroyed.

Likely over a million are now dead.

Over four million are refugees – either inside or outside the country. There are estimates of 2.8 million displaced inside the country, with very marginal improvement seen in the last year or two. Oftentimes, those displaced children end up begging or going through garbage to survive. Access to health care or even food is often very limited, and the living conditions are dire.

Amnesty International recently had this to say:

The displacement crisis caused by the US-led invasion of Iraq and the subsequent internal armed conflict has reached shocking proportions. Millions of people at risk – Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, Christians, Mandean-Sabeans, Palestinians and others – have fled their homes and most are now struggling to survive.

The crisis for Iraq’s refugees and internally displaced is one of tragic proportions. Despite this, the world’s governments have done little or nothing to help, failing both in their moral duty and in their legal obligation to share responsibility for displaced people wherever they are. Apathy towards the crisis has been the overwhelming response.

They say this problem will require attention for years and years to come, but the international community, especially the US, is ignoring the problem. There have been reports of “voluntary returns” but these are insignificant to the enormity of the problem. They also say that the improvement in the security in Iraq has been slight, and Iraq remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Overall, the situation for Iraqi refugees, both internal and external to Iraq, has deteriorated since last year. Iraqis constitute the largest group of asylum-seekers in the world today.

And no end in sight.

And these evil people have the nerve to claim that we are, or will, “succeed” in Iraq.

This is a monstrous evil. And many of our troops, who were pushed into being the actual people to carry out this evil, will pay a price for as long as they are alive. But the ones who started it – the politicians of the United States and other countries – will only grow more rich.

I don’t know how they can look in the mirror and not throw up. Or worse.