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DEL.ICIO.USFriendships with GIs put Iraqi kids at risk
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Curtis Compton/AJC
A boy kicks the ball away from Spc. Victor Gonzalez during a soccer game near Yusufiyah. An offensive kept Gonzalez’s unit in the area a week, and children grew to know the GIs.
Baghdad, Iraq — Mention American troops to tiny, 8-year-old Mehdi Talal and the Iraqi boy grins wide even as his mother shakes her head and clutches him to her side.
“He likes them. They take his picture,” said his mother, Sausan Majeed al-Hasnawi, 32. “I know the Americans are targets. I tell him it’s dangerous.”
Baghdad’s close-knit neighborhoods have long been safe play areas for Iraqi kids on summer break.
But amid what may be shaping up as the deadliest of the three summers since U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003, a suicide bomber Wednesday attacked children taking candy from soldiers on a Baghdad street. Eighteen children and teenagers were killed.
An American soldier, Spc. Benyahmin B. Yahudah, 24, of Bogart, Ga., also was killed. Yahudah was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, based at Fort Stewart.
The attack was a blow to the friendly, human side of Iraqi-U.S. relations.
Peaceful encounters between troops and children allow soldiers to get a morale boost out of making little friends. Kids get close up to the giants in high-tech gear, with those intricate rifles and armored cars.
Widad Salman Kareem, an Iraqi mother of three, said she recently watched kids kick a soccer ball with U.S. troops in a Baghdad park and that it was “very beautiful.”
Wednesday’s suicide bombing was the second such attack in less than a year. A bomber struck another crowd of children and soldiers in September, killing about 35 people.
Since the insurgency gathered momentum two years ago, Iraqi parents have worried about their children’s proximity to U.S. soldiers, who often position themselves in front of houses or shops.
Principals tell children to avoid troops near their school, and warning posters are plastered on walls. Parents and older siblings try to coax the young ones to other distractions, such as housework or computers, to keep them inside.
Some parents warn their children, seeking to persuade them by citing the many examples of troops firing in error on innocents.
In some neighborhoods, the rapport between American soldiers and Iraqi kids doesn’t come so easy.
At a community center swimming pool in western Baghdad on Thursday, children from neighborhoods heavy with insurgent activity said they did not try to approach the troops — sweets or not.
Omar Salem, a smiling 12-year-old in baggy swimming trunks, explained why he stayed away from soldiers: “I cannot accept anything from my enemy.”
He lives in the restive Sunni Muslim suburb of Ameriyeh. A group of neighborhood children around him chimed in with stories of raided homes, shot or detained neighbors and a father killed in a traffic accident with a tank.
In some neighborhoods, especially Sunni areas, children will throw rocks, or at least aim cold stares at troops.
But in the more prevalent Shiite Muslim areas of the city, there is more goodwill.
“Wherever we go in Baghdad, Iraqi civilians and children are drawn to us,” Maj. Russell Goemaere, a spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division, said after Wednesday’s attack. “To put it simply, the Iraqi people are just as interested in us as we are in them. When we travel the streets, the people come out of their doors just to wave and give us a thumbs up.”
But many Iraqis want their children to keep their distance.
“The fault lies with the soldiers. They know they are exposing [children] to danger,” said Ibrahim Khalil, 43, an electrician with five children living in Baghdad’s Karrada district, which is generally friendly to U.S. forces.
One parent suggested that if the soldiers wanted to give children candy they should send it to the schools or include it in the monthly food rations all families receive. Another accused troops of using kids as “human shields.”
Mosque preachers have warned children to keep their distance, and there are rumors of tainted or poisoned treats.
U.S. troops say they will not let bombers deter them from making personal contact with the people they are supposed to be protecting.
One Iraqi woman said that although she tried to keep her younger relatives away from the soldiers, she understood why American troops wanted to see friendly faces.
“They are human,” said Zaman Hamid al-Daraji, 21. “They have children also. They love them.”
Comments
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By Phyllis Kassum
July 15, 2005 09:26 AM | Link to this
It is understandable that some Iraqis would want to shield their children from foreign troops, but it is still important for the troops to try to maintain a postive contact with the children. In the future these same children will remember those who came and helped to change the government in their homeland. I will continue to send beanie babies and treats to our soldiers to be given to the children. After all in any war the children always suffer the most.
By samir
July 15, 2005 09:45 AM | Link to this
Great article! This is a very accurate and fair depiction of the interaction U.S. soldiers have with local Iraqis. I would like to see more about insurgent filled areas, and the effect insurgents are having on children.
By Beverly Wiggins
July 15, 2005 12:57 PM | Link to this
My son SSG Cory Martin is at FOB Row. After his first patrol he called home and asked for toys and candy to give to the children there. His two children were sad for the kids in the near by town and bought toys and candy to send to them with their own money. We all prayed over the items before they were sent out and asked God to keep their Dad safe during his RAK (Random Act of Kindness) Missions. It breaks my heart that this ACT OF KINDNESS has cost so many their lives. You can tell a lot about a Country by the way they treat their children. The insurgents place no value on the little one’s lives. Hate and bitterness over rules any and all reasoning with them. I’ll continue to send gifts for the little ones…perhaps the troops could just drop them on the rode as they are patroling??? The children could get them after they have passed. That wa the Troops are still PLANTING SEEDS OF KINDNESS….and the Insurgents LOSE ONE OF THEIR TACTICS! Just a thought??
By lsd
July 15, 2005 01:36 PM | Link to this
Thank you, Mr. Kaplow, for pointing out that the victims, not the perpetrators are truly to blame.
I always remind people who have lost loved ones to drunk drivers that we should blame the victims for getting on the road, not the stupid drunk who killed them.
And innocent bystanders of drive-by shootings? I always remind people that the victims should have known better than to get in the way of a criminal’s bullet.
All of those people who died in the World Trade Center, Pentagon and on hijacked aircraft on 9/11 should have known better than to be in those places, shouldn’t they? I mean, we can’t really blame the perpetrators, can we? That would be politically incorrect.
Thank you for another wonderful article reflecting the progressive views of the AJC. Please excuse me while I go read something else.
By MA
July 15, 2005 07:05 PM | Link to this
YES THE SOLDIERS WORRY ABOUT THE CHILDREN -MY NEPHEW HAS TOLD ME ABOUT THE CHILDREN GOING THROUGH THE GARBAGE . GOD DOES NOT MEAN FOR CHILDREN TO SUFFER , LETS ALL PRAY FOR THEIR SAFTY ALONG WITH OUT SOLDIERS SAFETY .
By Marie
July 23, 2005 05:23 PM | Link to this
Hi guys…. Happy to hear you are going home safe and sound. I had some issues at times with some of the things that you reported but it did not stop me from being proud of and impressed by you. From the bottom of my heart thank you for your bravery compassion and commitment. I can not express in words how valuable you have been to so many of us. I respect you very much even if I did not always like what you had to say. You make me, as our soldiers do ….PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN. Thank you.