Faces of Anguish

Faces of Anguish: Despair, horror and grief minutes after U.S. troops shot their parents dead.

Traumatized Five siblings were orphaned when U.S. soldiers fired on their car Jan. 18 after it failed to stop at a checkpoint in Tal Afar, Iraq at dusk. Their parents, who were in the front seat, were both killed and one child suffered non-life threatening wounds. The U.S. military said it was investigating.



While the obscenely ostentatious inauguration celebrations commenced last week it was this heart-rending photo, accompanied by these captions, that greeted commuters from newstands on their way to work last week — filling fully half of the front page of the Toronto Star, one of the major dailies here. Just thought I'd share it in case such images aren't seen by our neighbors to the south. This is what is being done in the name of Americans with their tax dollars as they help Iraq become "free" and "democratic."

I once heard a BushCo supporter trivialize tragedies such as this with the expression "In a battle between elephants the ants get squashed." I will never forget this phrase as long as I shall live. Perhaps it should become America's new motto.

This, and other such images, is how the world sees America — just in case anyone is wondering why 1) so many Americans are thinking of flooding across their northern border, and 2) why the world's opinion of America has plummeted.