Taking responsibility for the disaster in Iraq

Forty-eight years ago today, then Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was denied access to Disneyland. The Secret Service said it would be too dangerous for the communist leader to visit America’s best-known amusement park. They claimed that they just couldn’t guarantee his safety.

Probably just as well. If they hadn’t been so diligent, we might all be members of the Mickey Mao club right now.

But really, how times have changed: Amusement parks are where we take foreign nationals now to prove that they are finally safe and sound. This weekend, with video cameras all around, a little Iraqi boy went to Universal Studios. CNN gushed with details of the delightful time this little guy had, meeting Spider-Man and going on rides. According to CNN, the little boy’s father got scared a few times but not little Youssif – he was brave.

Seems once you’ve been pulled from your house, doused in gasoline, and then set on fire, a carnival ride just can’t scare a kid.

CNN brought Youssif, his parents and baby sister to the United States because the Iraq hospital that treated Youssif’s burns had no painkillers. After two months of listening to his son scream, his father risked everything by going to CNN.

Of course they had to bring the whole family because talking to the American media – the media of Iraq’s “liberators” – has a tendency to get a family killed in Iraq.

Don’t read further if you’re enjoying breakfast or if you already know that in Iraq we’ve lost the war on terror.

In Iraq, our invasion and continued occupation has assured that there’s plenty of terror to go around.

See, in order for Youssif’s father to approach CNN, he had to take the chance that something worse might happen.

What could be worse than having your kid burned alive?

Youssif’s father, on CNN not Al Jazeera – a major mainstream American news outlet, not an alleged Arab propaganda machine – told about a neighborhood kid (I warned you to stop reading) who had been kidnapped and beheaded. Then her murderers sewed a dog’s head where her head had been and returned her to her family.

Youssif’s father listened to Youssif scream for two months because he was that scared.

What are we doing in Iraq?

This week, the Washington Post reported that the Democratic leaders (I use that term facetiously), listening to their country clamoring for withdrawal, think that they can stall a vote on funding the war until November, hoping that Republican leaders (ditto) will come along.

Maybe by November, every American news organization will find some injured kid to exploit. By the time Congress has the guts to act, 30 kids might make it to safety.

Well, I’ve got an idea. It’s a crazy idea. But invading a country with no plan for after the bombs stop falling is crazy – destroying the entire infrastructure of a nation and claiming “mission accomplished” is crazy.

So here’s my idea.

As long as America has a presence in Iraq, the only really safe Iraqi is an Iraqi outside of the country. Now, there are 22 million people in Iraq. About half of them are children. I’m not saying that we can or should bring all those kids to Universal Studios. Heck, if Disney can’t keep Nikita Khrushchev safe, what fun park could handle 11 million Iraqi kids?

No, I say we bring them to … Montana. In Montana, there’s room for their parents, too.

See, Montana is roughly the size of Iraq but has a population of under a million. There’s gobs of room!

I mean, we broke their country. Don’t we owe it to them, if we can’t keep them safe there, to at least bring them here? Hey, Universal Studios and Halliburton and all the U.S. corporations who’ve found a way to make a buck or get free publicity from their misery can pay for their plane tickets.

Or do we as a nation need to admit that we just don’t care about those dying Iraqi children?

Call your congressman. Let U.N. peacekeepers from the neighboring nations take charge. Tell them to withdraw our troops and end this war.

Pat LaMarche of Yarmouth is the author of “Left Out In America: The State of Homelessness in the United States.” She can be contacted at PatLaMarche@hotmail.com.