This photo is of a baby girl severely injured (eyes lost) during a recent car bomb attack in Sadr City, Baghdad.
Past all the meaningless rhetoric coming from Washington, London and Canberra, the Iraqi people are speaking loud and clear (if we want to hear them):
More than 90 per cent of Iraqis believe the country is worse off now than before the war in 2003, according to new research obtained by Al Jazeera.
A survey of 2,000 people by the Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies found that 95 per cent of respondents believe the security situation has deteriorated since the arrival of US forces…
Nearly 66 per cent of respondents to the Iraqi survey thought violence would decrease if US forces were to leave.
Thirty-eight per cent were also “unconfident” that Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, would be able to improve the situation in Iraq and nearly 90 per cent described the government’s implementation of its commitments and promises as very poor.
And I am waiting to hear what pro-”operation freedom” people have to say.
No words can compensate this poor little girl or her family. But one day, those of us whose countries brought this violent chaos to her doorstep will be expected to make reparations.
I hope and pray that day will come soon, and I hope we will be ready to do what must be done to mend the damage we have wrought.
The consciences of our leaders are as shrivelled and dry as this poor little girl’s eyes. I hope our hearts are not similiarly damaged beyond repair.