NEW YORK (AFP) - The Tigris River running red with blood, a military plane dropping a key of freedom on Iraq and a child asking, "Where is my father?" All three images form part of an exhibition currently showing in New York of drawings by Iraqi schoolchildren who witnessed the US-led military assault on Baghdad. Made by pupils at the Iraqi capital's Al Assail primary school in June, one month after President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq, the drawings bring a child's sensibility to bear on the human impact of the US "shock and awe" bombing campaign. The results, while dominated by images of destruction, offer a surprisingly diverse perspective, including tableaux that are clearly both pro- and anti-US. One drawing shows a helicopter gunship and a tank firing on a sunny, tree-lined meadow above which are written the words "We Are Not Gilty" (sic), while another shows a rainbow linking two smiling faces above the US and Iraqi flags. Some bear the imprint of propaganda, including tanks with Star of David markings firing as they move through the streets of Baghdad. One of the most striking simply shows a river marked "Tigris" running red under two dark clouds. "This is the children of Baghdad speaking, ... voices that were never heard here because of the skewed media coverage of the war," said Carl Rosenstein, owner and curator of Lower Manhattan's Puffin Room gallery. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto...t_afp/us_iraq_children_031016162315&printer=1 The Gallery's website http://www.puffinroom.org/iraq/index.html
What? We didn't have embedded journalists in the elementary schools? "The skewed media coverage of the war" is now anti-child? What is this guy trying to say. Children don't understand bedtime, how are they going to comprehend a war?
wow that kid is beast at drawing... i still cant draw 2 arms/legs and a head... but it is so sad that kids have to go through this. i was in riyadh during the gulf waar, and just hte sirens going off and us having to wear gas mask still haunts me
No kidding. What is the education system like there? I know that these pictures probably represent the brighter students, but it seems like they're getting *some kind* of education.
