This is probably not the kind of thing we’re supposed to be talking about this time of year, what with all the parties to go to champagne to drink, and choruses of Auld Lang Syne to sing. But I couldn’t let this one go by once I noticed it. I’d seen some headlines about Iraq’s “Baby Noor,” but it wasn’t until I read a very brief story about Baby Noor arriving in Atlanta for treatment of some pretty serious deformities.
U.S. troops discovered the baby three weeks ago during a raid of a house in Abu Ghraib, a poverty-stricken district west of Baghdad. The soldiers noticed paralysis in the baby’s legs and what appeared to be a tumor on her back.
They later learned the 3-month-old child had spina bifida, a birth defect in which the backbone and spinal cord do not close before birth. The “tumor” on the baby’s back was actually a fluid-filled sac containing part of the spinal cord and membranes that are supposed to cover the spinal cord.
At first glance it’s a feel-good story about a poor, deformed Iraqi kid getting free treatment — worth $200,000 — from American doctors, and I should probably leave it at that. However, the cynic in me has this nagging feeling that something was missing from the story; that there as a part of it either being left out or just not even considered as part of the story. So, where most Americans would probably read the story and just say “Isn’t that nice? Those American doctors are giving that poor Iraqi baby free medical treatment!”, I read the story and the first thing I think is “How did Baby Noor get those deformities in the first place?”
Most people won’t ask, and I haven’t seen it asked in the U.S. media, let alone answered. Maybe that’s because asking that question means talking about what our government is doing in Iraq (on our dime, in our name, etc.), in particular American use of depleted uranium in Iraq, and the potential consequences that use holds for Iraqi children (warning, disturbing images follow, but we paid for them so we might as well see them).
The photos represent the surge in birth defects — in 1989 there were 11 per 100,000 births; in 2001 there were 116 per 100,000 births — that even before they heard about DU, had doctors in southern Iraq making comparisons to the birth defects that followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII.
There were photos of infants born without brains, with their internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without spines, and the list of deformities went on and on. There also were photos of cancer patients.
Left I on the News says it as well I as I probably could.
Baby Noor’s story reminds me most of Ali Ismaeel Abbas, an Iraqi boy who made headlines earlier in the war. He lost his arms and legs, and was severely burned, when an American missile landed on his house, killing the rest of his family. He was also the subject of several feel-good stories as he was flown to the UK and the U.S. for free medical treatment. I’m also reminded of the Iraqi children whose parents were gunned down by U.S. troops. The photographer who took the picture that was posted around the blogosphere, of one daughter wailing over her parents’ deaths while their blood was still on her face, started a relief fund for the orphaned children.
All these stories came to mind when I read about Baby Noor because they’re essentially the same. With Baby Noor, and these other stories, we are merely repairing the damage we knowingly and purposefully inflicted (though perhaps we can claim it’s for their own good), but what remains unrecognized is that we’re only repairing it to a very small degree, in these particular cases. For every Baby Noor, Ali Abbas, or Hassan family who’ve been helped by the very nations that brought them harm in the first place, there are thousands of Iraqi children who have suffered the same and worse as a result of our policies and actions, who have gotten and will get no relief.
But, of course, you can’t talk about any of that in America. Not if you want anyone to listen to you. It’s just nice that American doctors are moving heaven and earth to help that poor Iraqi baby. That’s all. Nevermind the rest of the story.
Happy New Year, Baby Noor. And America too. Here’s to us.
I was wondering when someone was going to put 2 2 together. I’m glad its you. There are topics, like this one, that I want to post on, but when I try to write it out I get so angry I end up with a two page rant loaded with profanity. I end up tossing the post and telling myself I’ll rewrite it later when I calm down.
I don’t care if this is the type of post people want to see first thing on New Years morning, its the truth. And the truth needs to spoken loud and clear 365 days a year. Hopefully in a straight forward factual manner reather than massaged by the media into another “feel good” story or by an out of control Ogre screaming profanity from his blog.
I thank you for being a voice that is loud and clear.
This may not be the type of story Americans want to hear, but it certainly is the type of story we need to hear. We must be held accountable for the damage we are doing to this nation in order to fuel our ever consuming lifestyle.
While yes you may be correct in that some chemicals that are being used by Americans in Iraq may be causing children to be born with birth defects you are not correct in your assumption that Baby Noor was born with Spina Bifida because of the same reason. The cause of her spina bifida is due to a lack of a vitamin C called folic acid in her mothers diet prior to conception. Most likely because her mother could not recieve proper care due to the circumstances in which she lives. I know this to be a fact because i myself have spina bifida and have done extensive research on the subject and have seen many doctors my whole life. I appreciate your comments though. Please don’t take my comments the wrong way i just wanted you and the rest of the readers to know the truth.
baby noor ?
they can’t be serious. what about the children who need help here?
They rescued her during a raid? may i ask where her mother is? Alive, i hope.
This is such horrible bullshit, We used uranium shells in iraq and then imposed sanctions which forced the iraqis to collect these shells in order to buy food. Now this poor fucking kid is dying a painful death and all we can do is use her as propaganda in order to take the moral highground. This makes me physically sick.