Les Bonbons...

I don't have a sweet tooth, so candies are neither my weakness nor my vice...

I am always delightfully amused when I observe kids eyeing the shelves of a sweet shop. You can tell from their eyes that they want it all - every single candy, chocolate bar, lollipop there is...I guess the palette of colors they are presented with, their wrappings, tickles something in them -- the taste of Sweetness.

I remember when I was a kid, I had the same feelings when passing by a sweet shop or the local kiosk. My mom was adamant about not letting her girl suck on colored candies and lollipops. She would say -- You are not having any of that, it is all artificial.

As a kid, I frankly did not care what was artificial and what was real. The colored candies/bonbons fitted my universe, they were an intrinsic part of it.

And the minute she had her back turned, or whenever the occasion presented itself, I would take the little coins I had diligently saved and go and buy one of those bright pink bonbons/candies that tickled your nose with their flavor and stain your tongue for days - to the utter displeasure of my mother.

I am not quite sure why candies have been on my mind. It may have to do with listening to a classic satirical song by Jacques Brel called les Bonbons, produced in the 60's during the Vietnam era. But that clip reminded more of the anti-war clowns than anything else...

So am digging hard to find out why this sudden obsession with candies, pink ones in particular.

It is probably due to something that crucified Ahmad later on mentioned, when he said to me "I forgot to tell you that in the Southern detention camp, there were over 900kids, aged between 7 and 16. They were used as human shields should the "insurgents" attack the prison." Ahmad also said, and I believe Ahmad because everything he has recounted is corroborated, that these kids were subjected to all sort of maltreatment i.e Torture. Your brave boys were/are convinced that these kids had inside information on the Resistance.

Mind you this is not the first time I hear such stories. Seymour Hersh did blow the whistle a while back when he corroborated Ahmad's story -- that the Pentagon has videotapes of boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib prison. “The worst is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking” he said.

More corroborating statements concerning the sexual torture of children at Abu Ghraib were made by the surviving prisoners themselves. The following is an excerpt from a statement provided by Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, Detainee #151108, on January 18 2004:

“I saw [name deleted] fucking a kid, his age would be about 15 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard the screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn’t covered and I saw [name deleted] who was wearing the military uniform putting his dick in the little kid’s ass. I couldn’t see the face of the kid because his face wasn’t in front of the door. And a female soldier was taking pictures. The sodomizer [name deleted], I think he is [deleted] because of his accent, and he was not skinny or short, and he acted like a homosexual (gay). And that was in cell #23 as best as I remember.”

The following is another testimony of sexual torture of Iraqi children from a statement provided by Thaar Salman Dawod, Detainee #150427, on January 17, 2004:

“I saw lots of people naked for a few days getting punished in the first days of Ramadan. They came with two boys naked and they were cuffed together face to face and Grainer was beating them and a group of guards were watching and taking pictures from top and bottom and there was three female soldiers laughing at the prisoners. The prisoners, two of them, were children. I don’t know their names.”


I personally remember about a year ago, I too, saw something on youtube which was quickly removed. It was an interview with an Iraqi doctor filmed in a hospital in Baghdad. I tried finding this video again to no avail.

I remember a particular scene that will never leave my mind. A militia man, an armed Shiite, brought in a boy not older than 12 with a huge open blistered chancre/sore on his buttock. The doctor asked the boy if the sore was painful, the boy's face was blood shot red and stuttered and said yes with his eyes.. He was terrified. The doctor then said, after this particular medical consultation - " We see so many horror stories, and we know what is taking place but we dare not ask questions. The armed militia man had obviously kidnapped and detained the boy you just filmed."

Since, a few reports came out, confirming that children as young as 7 were detained and tortured and raped /sodomized by both the American forces and the Shiite militias.

The official figure is around 2000 kids, I know the figure is much higher. And I need to add that these kids as it just so happens are children belonging to Iraqi/ Arab Sunni families. The latest in the series of your brave liberation is a video that can be watched here.


I have already covered in previous posts the subjection of Iraqi children to all kinds of abuse from trafficking, to pedophile rings, to sex slavery, to drugs, to street life, to lack of every basic necessity, to orphanages that are more like torture prisons, to destitution, to poverty, to disease, to abandonment and neglect. 5 million orphans is your trophy of Liberation - civilized ladies and gentlemen.

But today I am specifically referring to Iraqi children detained and tortured by the "official" authorities - the Americans and the sectarian Iranian Shiite government.

And here I want to stress the latter. I find it imperative to stress the latter. Namely that the Americans and the puppet sectarian Iranian government with its armed militias are detaining, sodomizing and torturing Iraqi kids. They are sodomizing, raping and torturing Iraqi children. They are sodomizing, raping and torturing Iraqi childhood.

Add this to your liberating democracy of 5 million orphans, and you will get a full picture of what Iraqi childhood is all about. Not mentioning the million of Iraqi refugee kids living in tents or in neighboring countries, humiliated, insulted, lacking, with no access to schooling or medical treatment, or prostituting themselves...

This is your "Freedom and Democracy - Ladies and Gentlemen."

It started off with poisoned bonbons/candies being imported from Iran and then candies thrown from American Humvees and tanks to begging children, thrown like you throw a bone to a rabid hungry dog and ended in those little ones being raped and tortured by none other than You.


So pedophiles, child molesters, child abusers, where are your cries of indignation now ?

How come I did not read any of your politically correct, twisted, hypocritical analysis on the consequences of being butt fucked by Americans and by the "poor oppressed Shiites" at the age of 7, by your "liberators" ?

How come you did not arrange for a panel of your fucked-up pedantic child therapists to discuss the matter ?

How come you did not cry out sexual abuse ? How come you did not cry out - a raped childhood ?

How come you did not bring your other category of fucked-up disgraceful whores of academics to discuss the long term consequences of being a child in the "new Iraq" ?

Had any Arab, Muslim or Iraqi done that to any of your kids, you would have personally murdered him on the spot.

But then you have done that already, haven't you ? You have murdered the dreams, the illusions, the candy shop owner, the family, the mother, and the child...

You have raped and murdered all the innocent ones. Millions of them...



So I was telling you -- the pink candies were the best, they tickled your nose and stained your tongue and left a taste of everlasting Sweetness in your mouth...
But that was a long time ago...



Painting : Iraqi artist, Hashim Hanoon, 2006