I Saw a Dead Child Today by Kevin Burns

I Saw a Dead Child Today by Kevin Burns

Today as I was driving, I saw a dead child lying next to a road in Odawara, Japan. It was on the local news. I had never seen a dead body before.

I'm sure that in Iraq many people have seen one, but I never had until today. He was a boy about five years old. He was in the typical cute clothes that kids of that age wear. I thought of my six-year-old son. I imagine the dead child had been hit by a car, but I don't know for sure what happened. Everyone at the scene was quiet and respectful.

I just knew he was dead. One man was wiping the blood from his head in a futile effort to stem the flow. I felt like crying. I imagined the anguish the parents must feel and how I would feel if I had lost one of my children -- not unlike how some of the Iraqis feel.

Imagine the anger it took, to do what Iraqis did to the American engineers in Fallujah. What they did was truly horrific, but maybe some of them had lost children to American or British bombs or bullets? Imagine the hatred that it took to kill four innocent men who were there to help rebuild Iraq and then hang them from a bridge after burning them black. If my country was invaded and if my children had been killed by the invaders, I would hate too. I believe we are all capable of that kind of hatred and that kind of vengeance if we are pushed far enough.

I wish the news stations would show the "real" news. Not the glamorized version of war we get usually, I mean the news. The blood and guts stuff. The real photos of what people look like when they are disemboweled, and what children look like after an Abrahms has ripped them apart. That really would be the news wouldn't it?

I think very few Americans would be in favor of a war, any war, if the news people were permitted to show what really happens in a war. Don't the American public deserve that -- the truth? Iraq is the world's ultimate reality show. Yet the version shown to American dinner tables is a palatable, cleaned up, ready for prime time broadcast.

Oh there's another squeaky clean, CNN newscaster mugging for the camera, and showing Iraqi prisoners. Why are the Iraqis who are still fighting, called "militants or worse?" Aren't they just soldiers defending their country from some very powerful invaders? Why have they become militants all of a sudden? Who decided on the name change?

They are soldiers. Most of them are battle hardened and have been fighting from the first day the U.S. and Britain invaded. Does it make the press more comfortable to call them militants as if they are rebels? It is their country, and Britain and America invaded it. Not the other way around! They are soldiers, Iraqi soldiers, let's call them that. We don't call the Americans during the American Revolution militants -- they were Americans fighting for their freedom. I think that is how the Iraqis see themselves too. They are fighting people they see as foreign invaders. It is that simple.

Many coalition families are grieving tonight. Their children are dead. They died in the desert in Iraq, for what? What really was the purpose of this ill-conceived fiasco? Is the world any safer? Please think about the grieving families whether they are Iraqi, or coalition, and say a prayer for them.

And think about the government that represents you and ask yourself: Do they really represent your best interests? Are they really acting on your behalf?
About the Author

About The Author

Kevin Burns is a writer and entrepreneur from Vancouver, Canada, though he has lived in Japan for many years now. To read more of his writing visit the following links:

Travel Central Japan: http://www.travel-central-japan.com

Japan Living http://www.eikaiwa1.com/jp.html

Or visit Kevin's store or school:

Merry Lue's General Store: http://www.import-food-japan.com

Kevin's English Schools: http://www.eikaiwa1.com