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CounterPunch
November
2, 2002
The Children Of Iraq Have Names
by DAVID KRIEGER
The children of Iraq have names.
They are not the nameless ones.
The children of Iraq have faces.
They are not the faceless ones.
The children of Iraq do not wear Saddam's
face.
They each have their own face.
The children of Iraq have names.
They are not all called Saddam Hussein.
The children of Iraq have hearts.
They are not the heartless ones.
The children of Iraq have dreams.
They are not the dreamless ones.
The children of Iraq have hearts that
pound.
They are not meant to be statistics of war.
The children of Iraq have smiles.
They are not the sullen ones.
The children of Iraq have twinkling eyes.
They are quick and lively with their laughter.
The children of Iraq have hopes.
They are not the hopeless ones.
The children of Iraq have fears.
They are not the fearless ones.
The children of Iraq have names.
Their names are not collateral damage.
What do you call the children of Iraq?
Call them Omar, Mohamed, Fahad.
Call them Marwa and Tiba.
Call them by their names.
But never call them statistics of war.
Never call them collateral damage.
David Krieger
is president of the Nuclear
Age Peace Foundation. His latest book is Choose
Hope, Your Role in Waging Peace in the Nuclear Age. He
can be contacted at dkrieger@napf.org.
* *
*
No to War Rap
by M. JUNAID ALAM
Who can deny
The violence of the policies we decry
Inflicted against innocents who defy
The deep lies of our time?
Who can deny the crimes
Committed for line after line of nickel and dime
To the rhythm and rhyme of bullets and mines
Broken by women's' cries?
Bombs explode the ground so the sound
Of the soul that implodes is heard, learned, and told
For before the cannons reload we must break a new mold
And capture in rapture the conscience of the cold--
Heart.
Bullets dart while bombs dubbed smart rub against
Toddlers in tubs-now tombs
Depleted Uranium looms, the daisy-cutter cracks
Babies' craniums en masse as another mother stutters, taken aback
She wails and-boom
Injustice sets sail and over our voices prevails
Until we make decisions un-reversed by revisions in detail
To derail the hail of hellish weapons dropped on flailing brethren
Dropped over Baghdad, ironclad:
Explosives corrosive to our morality
Conducive to brutality of-who?
The ruling-class crew that
Wipe's Bush's ass squeaky clean like glass while
Callous and crass towards humanity:
American, Iraqi, our universality
Let's grab back from the backstab of
humanity's scabs and enemies
Our own dreams and destinies
Against reams of lies
Against screams of 'fire!'
Against hate designed
Against fate maligned
And make good of the common brotherhood
that is ours
Before it's devoured by cowards creeping in corners and crevices
Of power
Whose graceless faces grate and turn sour when
We roar:
No to war!
M. Junaid Alam
is a student at Northeastern University and a member of the NU
Students Against War and Racism Coalition. He can be reached
at: alam.m@neu.edu
Yesterday's
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October 26
/ 27, 2002
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Ilija Trojanow
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Carol Norris
This Message
Brought to You by Breast Cancer, Inc.
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