“You stole my childhood,” a well-off, well-backed, Swedish girl said, (yes, I’m aware of the PR factory behind her, I don’t necessarily blame her: http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/01/17/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-political-economy-of-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/)
Over the years since 2007, in occupied Palestine, then in the years since 2014, walking in Syria, I’ve witnessed untold childhoods stolen–stolen by nearly 10 years of a Western-fomented and backed war on Syria’s people and further stolen by draconian US/Western sanctions against the Syrian people–for decades, the June 17 Caesar Act being only the latest, depraved, cruel, round; and childhoods stolen by Israel’s violent and brutal occupation of all Palestinian lands, over at least 7 decades of childhoods stolen by Zionist invaders and occupiers, who were, btw, the original terrorists.
The gangs of the Irgun and Haganah committed acts of terrorism against Palestinian civilians, but you wouldn’t know because MSM and wikipedia blithely describe these acts of TERRORISM as a “campaign of violence.”
In Syria, I see skinny boys, some quite young, pushing/pulling laden metal carts (like dollies) under the hot sun, all day, every day. And children standing all day under the sun to sell goods that only a handful or two of people on a given day might purchase.
In Gaza, I saw children risk being shot by armed Israeli soldiers in order to scavenge rubble for rebuilding, or farm the land, for an income or for their families.
On countless occasions, I and other volunteers stood arms up, naked of protective armour as the Israeli soldiers shot at the Palestinian farmers we accompanied and us ourselves, live ammunition passing our bodies and heads.
Over the years in Palestine and Syria, I’ve see children missing legs, arms, eyes and in critical condition after terrorist attacks on civilian areas. Their childhoods, and nearly their lives, were stolen. And for untold numbers of them, their lives were indeed stolen.
Regarding Syria, consider two main Syrian cities, Aleppo and Damascus. In November 2016, the head of Forensics, Dr. Zaher Hajo, told me that at that point just under 11,000 civilians had been murdered by terrorists’ bombings, suicide bombings, and snipings. As I wrote then:”In the past year alone, 328 children have been killed by terrorist shelling in Aleppo, and 45 children were killed by terrorist snipers.”[ https://www.mintpressnews.com/aleppo-how-us-saudi-backed-rebels-target-every-syrian/222594/]
And in Damascus, before eastern Ghouta was liberated from al Qaeda, Jaysh al-Islam and other western supported (overtly or covertly) terrorists, the number of murdered civilians was also well over 10,000, if not a few thousand more.
In my early visits to Syria, I saw in Damascus hospitals fragile children with horrific maimings, or on life support.These are stolen childhoods, utterly preventable, had America and allies not waged a war on Syria’s people.
Regarding Gaza, I was there during 2 major Israeli wars on the imprisoned people with no where to flee: during 2009 and 2012, when Palestinians were gunned down, their supposedly safe structures bombed with White Phosphorous, murdering and mutilating the people inside, civilians, including children, murdered and drone-struck by Israeli forces, and so damn much more. See links.
I think about that phrase, “you stole my childhood”, uttered by a well-backed Swedish girl exempt of the actually stolen childhoods of the children of Syria, Palestine, Yemen…and so many more countries targeted by the West & Israel , and I see daily Syrian children with actual stolen childhoods silently going about their laborious work, in order that they and their families, if they still have any, might survive.
I could post many, many, many more examples but for the sake of brevity will leave it here. I think my point is made.
RELATED:
https://www.mintpressnews.com/caesar-act-latest-western-attack-syria-didnt-drop-from-plane/268697/https://original.antiwar.com/rick_sterling/2020/06/19/caesar-tries-to-suffocate-17-million-syrians
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/494613-us-sanctions-war-syriahttps://www.rt.com/op-ed/475983-sanctions-kill-people-syria-us )
(TERRORISM IN SYRIA) https://www.rt.com/op-ed/330702-terrorism-west-hypocrisy-syria/
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/children-injured-by-rebel-shelling-of-manar-school-damascus/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFAeXAsRxZk&feature=emb_title]
(GAZA)white phosphorous mutilated and murdered family members
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/white-phosphorous-mutilated-and-murdered-family-members/
attack/https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/the-white-phosphorous-bombed-and-machine-gunned-wafa-rehabilitation-hospital/
the hardest jobs
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/the-hardest-jobs/
The hardest thing: Palestinian parents speak of their children killed by Israeli bombings https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/the-hardest-thing-parents-speak-of-their-children-killed-by-israeli-bombings/
Israel a criminal offender at large, UN listing or not
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/israel-a-criminal-offender-at-large-un-listing-or-not/
The Broken Sparrows of Palestine
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/the-broken-sparrows-of-palestine/
