The baby on CNN...

[CoffeeCat]

I had just turned off the vacuum. Glancing at the tv, as I walked to the closet to put the vacuum away--she caught my eye. She was a beautiful baby, about six months old. She was lying on crisp, white sheets in a metal hospital bed. She was screaming. Her tiny eye lids were swollen and red.

The reporter's voice-over narrated above her screams--and discussed bombs that were laced with white phosphorous, which creates deep, penetrating burns that are almost impossible to treat. The burning does not stop. Not even water quells the pain. When air hits white phosphorous, it ignites to 500 degrees. Five hundred degrees of pain on her tiny fingers, flailing arms and delicate face.

The voice-over continued, as other children were shown--with bandages over the eyes, burnt faces and painful cries. The camera cut back to the baby. A doctor was rubbing ointment on the burns on her arms and she cried. Her small arms stiffened, tense and trembling--as she wailed.

It must have hurt so bad.

She's probably in so much agony. She doesn't understand why. She probably can't sleep.

I wanted to scoop her up, soothe her and allow her to cry in my arms--just like I did with my baby girl when she was up screaming every night with colic.

The segment ended, and all I could do was stand there with the vacuum still in my hand---crying--knowing that she was probably crying at this very moment.

[blonndee]

1. Sigh.

Words fail.

[burythehatchet]

2. i wept too

:cry:

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Thanks for this post, TwoSparkles -- recommended for others. nt

[madeline_con]

4. ..........

:cry:

[redacted]

5. See also this disturbing AP report:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1723146

[democrank]

6. This is disturbing beyond words.

Wish I could help that precious child.

[hopeisaplace]

7. I'm crying again, it's ripping me up, I can't stand this

If this is the same beautiful baby and her brother and mother they showed on CNN
last night..it ripped me to pieces inside. I couldn't sleep all night. I felt guilty
for sleeping without pain, I felt guilty for being a mom who has a beautiful home,
a safe place to live and healthy children (thank gawd). My mind was rolling and turning
and asking over and over and over, why. why. why. do these children have to suffer.
My heart was ripping inside for the mother who has to helplessly witness her child
suffer pain that is beyond words. I couldn't sleep. I stayed on DU reading quite late.
Then it must have been 4am or so before I finally did sleep.

I want to stop reading, I want to turn the tv off, but then I feel that would be
a cold heartless thing to do. I'm a mess over these babies, these mothers.

Oh and by the way, the White Phosphorus that Mike Malloy is talking about..I heard the
doctor caring for these kids, on a news report on CNN, estimate that it was White Phosphorous by the smell as well.


edit: clarity.

[redacted]

8. Here's the CNN International video censored in the U.S.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/VIDEO__Lebanese_Doctor_Says_Phosphorus_0724.html

[mnhtnbb]

35. Reminds me of that awful photo of the Vietnamese girl with her clothes

burned off from napalm.

When will they ever learn?

[SPKrazy]

40. As A Supporter Of Israel

this is going wayyyyy toooooo farrrrrrr!

something just snapped inside me

yes Israel has a right to defend herself, but, this isn't defense, this is torturous.

Why would they do this?

The US did it in Fallujah too, why?

I'm very frightened for humanity right this minute, and heartbroken for these suffering people.

[Bjorn Against]

43. Thanks for your honesty

It is shows strong character to be able to admit when your side is wrong, and I applaud you for doing so.

[Zhade]

58. I love you, SPK.

I mean that. You know how many people, even here, would shut down that voice inside and turn away from that baby?

You're a good man.

[NoodleyAppendage]

55. And, people wonder why anti-semitism still is a problem...

I defy anyone to watch the CNN International video and not to feel the slightest bit of anger over the actions of Israel and it's leadership. The horrible actions by Israel only perpetuate ill will against Israel (and by proxy on Jews from the region).

The "collateral damage" produced by Israel is NO DIFFERENT than the indiscriminate bombing/suicide killing by Arab extremists.

As far as I'm concerned, Israel has lost any moral grounding it may have had in their ongoing struggles with terrorism.

J

[Jamastiene]

62. Excellent assessment.

I have been saying for years that neither Israelis nor the "Arab world" are right in the way they are handling their disagreements. The war crimes are atrocious. If you ask me, it's a classic case of the abusees (WWII) growing up to be the abusers (the current bombings by Israel now.)

[Sydnie]

9. You have a kind heart, my friend

:hug: I would have been there crying along with you if I had seen it. It's just all so senseless and unnecessary. If only more countries were run by women ... we would never want to do to another mother and her children what we wouldn't want done to us and ours.

If only Condi had kids of her own .... :grouphug:

[Pryderi]

11. www.fromisraeltolebanon.info very graphic

http://www.fromisraeltolebanon.info/

Not for the weak of heart.

[redacted]

16. Sure looks like genocide to me--some of the most horrific photos

of children (and at least one puppy) that I've ever seen.

[Nikki Stone 1]

18. Seems like the G word is in order

Who the FUCK is making these decisions?!

[aaronbees]

19. Those photos are horrifying ....

That link should be sent to everyone in Congress. Those poor children and families. THIS is the true face of war.

[Jamastiene]

53. could not be found?

The link...it worked earlier? I just tried it and it said it was down.

Nevermind. I kept trying. It's back now.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. You don't have to have kids to be heartbroken by this

:cry:

I don't have kids--and Laura Bush does, and she still stays with the Sociopath in Chief.

I want the "israel has to protect itself" crowd to go to Lebanon and look that mother in the eye and tell her that her children (and countless other children) are in agony because two active duty Israeli soldiers were captured inside Lebanese territory.

[Sydnie]

14. That is true

What I meant to convey was that women wouldn't do this as easily, imho. We would think about the kids and the impact on them first and foremost. Diplomacy would always be the first thing on our minds.

We are watching everyone's future being wasted needlessly. It pisses me off that these men make rules for war in anticipating fighting them. It's the people that are suffering and they just don't care.

[grace0418]

24. If only Condi wasn't a fembot. If she were at least human it would help.

My loathing for that whole administrations knows no bounds, especially when I read stories like this. May they be forced to endure ten times the suffering they've unleashed on the world.

[Patchuli]

26. I am sure Old Scratch

has a 'special place' all ready for the neo-cons! And I do believe in such things. I wouldn't trade my poor honest life, good conscience and ability to sleep at night for all the money and power of those people because they won't take it with them and it won't help them in hell.

[cynatnite]

10. Her older brother was worse off...

It was heartbreaking to watch. :cry:

[theHandpuppet]

36. Yes, I saw a video of that young boy

His burns were so bad he was drifting in and out of consciousness, having seizures and bleeding from his eyes. His body was seizing even as the cameras rolled. It was just too horrific. All the time his mother, who was also burned, was sobbing over her two children and knowing that her husband and their father had been killed as well.

And to think there was a DUer here who actually said the Lebanese people were "getting what they deserve" for the actions of Hezbollah. I don't know what to say to people like that, I really don't.

[samsingh]

13. this is when it doesn't matter if the child is Jewish or Muslim

[Tinksrival]

15. I sit here in my kitchen and cry.

I feel guilty. I feel so sad and depressed and guilty for feeling it. It is horrific what humans can do to each other.

Tom Hayden has a post on this on Huffington:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-hayden/paula-zahn-comes-close-w_b_25732.html

snip>>>

Under hard questioning by CNN's Paula Zahn, the Israeli foreign ministry spokesman descended into double-talk about the use of phosporous weapons burning the flesh of Lebanese children, as shown on footage from Beirut hospitals.

The Israeli repeatedly refused to answer Zahn's clear question - does Israel use phosporous weapons? Instead he claimed that Israeli weaponry is consistent with accepted standards.
As with the American use of phosporous in Falluja, the implication is that phosphorous if intended as a smoke-causing agent is legal. But the televised image of the burned baby overpowered the dissembling answers.

[leftofthedial]

17. yeah, but Hezbollah is bad and they hate Israel

or so I'm told repeatedly everytime I criticize Israel

[CuteNFuzzy]

22. it's amazing isn't it

The excuses for these crimes

[LostinVA]

27. And Israel has the right to defend herself against these terrorist babies

I weep...

[Pachamama]

20. OMG I can't stop crying....Why? Why? Why?

:cry:

Phosphorus again? Now the Israeli's are using our weapons containing this and using it on civilians?

The world should see that baby and her brother...All the "Pro-lifers" who support Bush should see that....And if they can't cry and they can't see the insanity in all this, then they are not Pro-life.

This war that Israel is unleashing and we are behind is wrong and is only going to lead to hell....

[Karenina]

41. Pachamama

is poised to pose some (weiblich) stiff questions. Damn it's hot in these parts...

[Postman]

21. So who's using chemical weapons against civilians?

Looks like Israel falls into the "Saddam" category as Condosleeza Rice meanders to make a "surprise" visit to Beirut...

What a bunch of f**king war criminals these animals are.

Condosleeza Rice makes the perfect "minstrel" Sec of State. She has no credibility, no authority and does what she's told.

[Warren DeMontague]

44. deciding that any people are "animals"

is how you end up with this kind of shit.

[Solon]

49. Actually, all other animals don't bomb each other...

that's a human thing, I would much rather be a "lower level" animal than a human being right about now.

[Warren DeMontague]

50. I was thinking about this today...

not to insult animals, by the way.

But I was thinking that the thing to hate is the hate, not the people. Hezbollah has decided the Israelis aren't people, so they can blow them up at will. Israel has apparently decided the same thing about the Lebanese. "The terrorists" don't respect human life so we go and start these crazy wars, obstensibly to "fight" them, where we end up displaying an appalling lack of respect for human life, ourselves.

You start going down the road about how "those people" don't give a shit, how low they are, and pretty soon you're down there with 'em.

I think that's part of it.

[zanne]

23. That helpless feeling...

I know what you mean about seeing things like that, wanting to help, and knowing there's very little you can do. If you're religious, you can pray. If you're not, you can hope. The most we can do right now is try to apply pressure to our gov't. so they'll apply pressure to the Israeli gov't (and maybe the Lebanese gov't). I hate seeing things that I can do nothing about.

[Gregorian]

25. I'm a war president.

Whether it was in a boxcar going to a camp, or the one left at home after the parents were sent to Abu Ghraib. I just want to point out that there is not one single thing to be proud of when it comes to war.

We all stand there with your stare and loss of words. We have all been speechless. That poor child. Like all of the rest of the poor people we've had to see.

There is only one way to stop it. And that is to just stop. Stop making the bombs. And stop dropping them. Who's going to be the brave fool to do it first? I am.

[MamaBear]

28. I wanted to give the children's mother a hug as well.

She had just lost her husband in the same attack.

Nothing justifies causing such suffering. I don't care how much anybody thinks *their* people have suffered in the past.

What can we do to make this stop? How can we prevent it happening again?

:cry:

[lostnfound]

37. I'm reminded of a psycho story from Saddam's time

It may have been pure propaganda, or it may have been the truth. The gist of it was parents forced to listen to the cries of their VERY hungry babies, unable to even comfort them. At the time, it didn't change my belief in the wrongness of the war, but it horrified me in new ways I hadn't imagined.

This doesn't have exactly the same sadistic mind behind it, I will assume, but the effect on that mother must be the same.

[gully]

29. Interesting to contrast how much we've seen of Iraq vs. the Israeli

Lebanon conflict. Our tax dollars have done that to children in Iraq for more than a year for political and financial reasons.

Tragic beyond words.

[truebrit71]

30. White phosphopurus is a WMD.

Israel is engaged in war crimes as we speak....Or is that anti-semitic of me.... :eyes:

This shit has to stop....

[samhsarah]

31. Thanks for writing this......

I watched that and I could not stop mentally replacing that baby with my 2 year old who was that small not too long ago. I bawled so badly that I thought maybe I was starting to lose my mind.

[myrna minx]

32. Oh, your post has sent me into tears.

:cry: You have such compassion that it just pours forth from your words. I am just heartbroken. :cry:

[w8liftinglady]

38. me,too...I'm crying right now.How can we stand by and allow this?

[femrap]

33. Please go stream Democracy Now!

Today Amy had exclusive video from Italy regarding NEW 'weapons of death' that we have developed. We no longer need bullets or bombs using kinetic energy....we now can use laser and microwave energy to burn holes into people.

This is where our taxes go, people. To new and improved ways of killing people. This has got to stop. Conflicts must be resolved with words. The machismo and hatred of women must stop now. The victims of war are over 70% women and children. I am sick of it.

[norml]

34. Casualties of war - Lebanon (Warning! Links to Very Graphic Images!)

It's best that you not look at these.

These are images of only one incident, and they are not like the more media friendly images that you've seen.

July 19, 2006
Casualties of war - Lebanon.

These images show a vehicle allegedly hit by Israeli munitions in Lebanon. It would appear the small truck was carrying a family at the time. You can also see another damaged vehicle just to the right of frame on one of the pictures. The civilian cost in any guerrilla type warfare is always high.

To date appraoximately 250 Lebanese and 30 Israelis have been killed. We have no information that we consider reliable as to how many of the Lebanese dead are involved in any way with Hezbollah.

[Horse with no Name]

39. As we reap, so shall we sow...

These tortures will come home to roost...you can bet on it.
I just wonder if the Great Equalizer will know which ones of us deplore these actions, regardless if the US is doing them or one of our allies is doing them.
I doubt there will be anywhere to hide.:cry:

[whyverne]

42. And this is why it will get worse,

I'm a single dad and if someone did that to my kid, I wouldn't care how great they were, what their excuses were, how high minded they were. The only thing on my mind would be revenge. No forgiveness, no quarter given: an eye for an eye. Maybe Newt is right. World War III.

[hopeisaplace]

45. I get what you're saying,

If these were my children...I would need to be in a country that had laws
to protect me...laws that would seek out the "evil-doers" of this act.
Laws that would protect me from feeling like the only option left for me
was to lash out in a violent way against the perpetrators of this act.
Oh this is a war, it's gawd-damned free-for-all of death, I forgot :sarcasm:.

I'm sick over these children, and all the other children that are crying
this very minute in pain and hunger from this war, any war. There's a child
somewhere in so much pain right now, pain I've never known, and this
child is suffering from man-made hell...as I type this.

[w8liftinglady]

56. I have the same feelings about my kids...

if anyone dropped freaking white phosphrus on my kids,i would fight them to the death...no kidding.

[Warren DeMontague]

46. It made me cry, too.

I don't know why the babies have to pay for the idiocy of the adults. Israeli babies, Lebanese Babies, Iraqi babies.. they didn't do anything.

Now I have another reason to support NASA... on the off chance that one day, some of us will be able to move to a planet where we don't blow each others' babies up.

[BeHereNow]

47. Gee, anyone notice the absence of Israel neocon supporters on this thread?

Hmmm.
Guess it's sort of hard to talk about
Israel's "right to defend herself" on
a thread like this, eh?
God damn the war mongers to HELL.
Over there and right here on DU.

BHN

[Poll_Blind]

48. They do not dare use the same inflammatory rhetoric in a thread...

...of this nature.

PB

[Warren DeMontague]

51. Have you seen a lot of people talking about that here, lately?

I'd wager not, primarily because it's fairly clear- to me, at least- that Israel has gone way beyond what can be rationally called "defending itself." Israel DOES have a right to defend itself. I don't think that's what they're doing.

[w8liftinglady]

52. I don't either...it looks like they have a hard-on for revenge

[BeHereNow]

54. Well, duh...no shit.

That's why so many of the "Israel has a right to defend herself"
posters are clearly insane.
Israel is, and has been, armed to the teeth for decades
on our tax dimes. The whole talking head meme is ludicrous
for that reason alone.
Israel is NOT defending shit- they are simply the
tool of the neocon war mangers in Washington.
Not arguing with you- just flabbergasted that
anyone in their right mind is not only BUYING this shit,
but defending it! On DU, no less.
Obviously we have a lot of new posters who have
never read the neocon papers on the PNAC site.

BHN

[Zhade]

60. Well, let's be fair - what kind of monster could defend this?

The people who excuse Israeli war crimes here are likely either uninformed, scared of not supporting Israel and thus by extension the Jewish people (yes, I know the two are not the same, I'm describing their likely viewpoint), or freepers.

So, the last is the answer to my subject line's question, I guess.

[AliceWonderland]

61. Yes, I do note that the pro-war crowd pick and choose

And like most arm chair bigots, are cowards when they actually have to confront stories like these.

And you know what I think? It's not because warmongers are afraid they would be proven wrong. It's because they don't want to have to admit they really don't give a shit that the untermenschen burn and die.

'Cause that's such bad press for the good guys fighting evil.

[Liberty Belle]

57. This angers me as well, and I am generally pro-Israel.

White phosphorous is a horrendous weapon banned by international law, I believe. It should never be used.

But why hasn't CNN reported on how the Bush administration used white phosphorous weapons in Iraq? This was widely reported by the British press, yet our own mainstream media in the US ignored this important story. Bush and his crew are war criminals, and our media is complicit in covering up for his crimes.

[w8liftinglady]

59. you are right...and we come from the same background

I have historically been very pro-israel,but I can't support them on this one....and Bush and his murderous friends could give a shit about killing iraqi babies..and they have the media so pussywhipped that they will never challenge these bastards...there -i feel better