Children and War: The Effects Grow

The idea that war is damaging to peoples' psyche is, of course, a truism to many in America today. But the fact that we tend to take such a reality as a truism, downplaying or muting its factticity is more a comment about ourselves than about the reality of war. Imagine if these were your own children. That is why war is so evil: it lessens the evil and barabarity that humans commit--both against each other but also those innocent victims who are scarred psychologically and whose lives will be spent warding off the demons of childhoods spent in terror.
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Violence scars Iraqi children
Monday 26 September 2005, 15:05 Makka Time, 12:05 GMT
Reuters

Iraq's violence is depriving children of a normal childhood

Young boys run across a Baghdad garden firing plastic guns at each other in a timeless game enjoyed around the world. But in Iraq, pretending to kill each other is much more than child's play.

"Children believe this is a normal way of life," said Harith Hassan, one of the country's leading psychologists. "They are developing psychopathic personalities."

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Al-A'anee added: "I have children who play alone or hit themselves. Others are too scared to make friends."

Many children have been victims of the bloodshed, which shows no sign of easing.

Toy store owner Ziad Daoud says booming sales of plastic tanks, planes and guns, which replaced teddy bears, have started to decline due to rumours of the risks.

"These days I am selling less because people started talking about American soldiers mistakenly shooting children carrying plastic guns," he said.

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