ABOUT WORLD BLOG

NBC News World Blog aims to provide a dynamic look at world events and trends -- both big and small -- from NBC News correspondents, producers, and bureaus around the world. Online entries -- from text to video -- will explore news events and how they are shaping our world.

Regular contributors include NBC News correspondents, producers and staff based in bureaus across the world and on assignment.

Click here to read more about the journalists behind NBC News World Blog.



No peace – even on a playground

Posted: Monday, October 15, 2007 1:53 PM
Filed Under:

Once I asked a little girl what the Eid al-Fitr feast at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan meant to her. Her answer was: a new beautiful dress, new shoes, a nice gift, candies, balloons and some pocket money to buy extra sweets and enjoy the day at a playground.

It was pretty pure and simple – a child’s dream of how to enjoy a day.

Many families mark the end of the month of fasting by bringing their children to simple playgrounds with local made swings, slides, seesaws, and sometimes manual ferris wheels.

Palestinians receive gifts on the first day of Eid al-Fitr at Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem

SLIDESHOW: Celebrations mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan

 
On Friday, in the northern city of Tuz Khormato where kids must have been laughing while innocent smiles spread across their faces as they swung and slid down slides – a vendor approached selling homemade sweets.

But the vendor was not the ordinary one, he was a suicide bomber hiding an improvised explosive device (IED) inside his cart full of sweets. 

The attack killed a boy and his father, and wounded another 20 children. 

The smiles turned to tears, wounds and sorrow.

What was the message that the terrorists wanted to send beyond killing and injuring children? I asked myself and couldn’t find an answer other than don’t ever cheer up.

* The names of local journalists are not used to protect their identity.

MAIN PAGE

Email this EMAIL THIS

Comments

For jorge and all who agree with him and say things like "I AGREE 150 PER CENT WITH JORGE THERE'S BLOOD
ON ALL HANDS IN WASHINGTON DC,AND WHO EVER ELSE
IS ALL FOR THESE MURDERS "
The blood is on your hands too for not doing something about it
I'm amazed at the amount of hatred many Americans are directing toward our leaders for their actions both at the start and through the first year of two of the war.  These feelings may well be justified but they are largely irrelevant; what really counts are the events unfolding in Iraq now.    
If these critics had been at Mission Control during the flight of Apollo 13, the astronauts would have died in space because the people on the ground couldn't stop arguing about who was at fault for the mechanical problems.  We should take a lesson from those who did save that mission and 'work the problem'.
And the problem - the war itself - is very complex and continues to change very rapidly.   But almost no one  except the military seems to be paying attention.  Part of this is the fault of the media.  Mainstream coverage rarely goes beyond the suicide bomb report.  We get no meaningful metrics on month-over-month incidents of violence, % of population with water/sanitation/power, status of the economy, education levels, province-by-province living conditions, etc.  We really have no basis for evaluating the war and the condition of Iraq except for occasional anecdotal news reports, which tend to be sensational, apparently catering to media tastes.  However, much of this inattention is also the fault of people like Jorge who would seemingly rather spend time blaming someone for the failure of the oxygen tanks than trying to save the crew.
All wars end: this one will not be an exception.  So if we are going to make the most of the valiant sacrifice of our brave military and the billions we have poured into the country, we had better start working the problem.
jorge, i could not have said it better myself. this war sickens me. where is our sense of outrage? where is the revolution that should be happening in this country? are our people so brainwashed and ignorant to believe this war was not about the almighty dollar? may god have mercy on our souls. the blood of innocents is on our hands.
What Jorge does'nt understand, even if HE was the President of the United States (with his lack of  historical knowledge, present day knowledge, and his deep hatred for our president) That these people would cut his head off in second, given the opportunity...

Hey Jorge, I believe we went to WAR to help the Iraqi people. NOT to steal oil or get rich, maybe we were in both world wars, korea and vietnam for some other reason then to help oppressd people. Maybe now the Iraqi's should start caring for themselves, but since we did start this we should at least make sure that this was not all for nothing. As a VETEREN i believe every other VETEREN who served would agree with me 100%.


SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the blog, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):

TRACKBACKS

Trackbacks are links to weblogs that reference this post. Like comments, trackbacks do not appear until approved by us. The trackback URL for this post is: http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/trackback.aspx?PostID=411697

Syndicate This Site

Add World Blog to your news reader:
live.com xml
myyahoo msn
bloglines newsgator
google

Interactive

Fight for Iraq
Learn more about the ethnic, religious and political power plays in and around Iraq during a briefing of the region led by NBC’s Richard Engel.