The Painful Reality

Daughter of Jalil Shaalan, a security guard at a local school, cries beside his body after he was gunned down in front of her outside of the school, Thursday. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)



This is a picture I saw in the paper on Friday as I ate my nice lunch at a nearby restaurant after a short day at work. I felt very sick at looking at this picture as I sat in this nice place eating an enjoyable meal, while these people probably don't themselves eat so well; and then to see this little girl crying at the feet of her slain father, it was kind of too much. I feel partially responsible for this, as an American, as someone who did not do enough to prevent an illegal, immoral war from coming to the land of Iraq, perpetrated by my own government, and resulting in a chaotic violence which has lead to the deaths of over 1700 U.S. soldiers, perhaps up to 25,000 Iraqis to date, and to the death of this man, and the resultant misery of his little daughter. This is the picture that you never see, in a war sold to us as necessary in the fight against terrorism. Since when did she become my enemy?
Perhaps now though I, and we, have become hers.