Season Of Giving Or Season Of Killing

Via Rense.com
With the Christmas around the corner, Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus (Peace Be upon Him) as a period of benevolence and giving. Indeed, as some Christians practice the season of giving and benevolence, others turned it into a season of killing. I called it a season of killing as thousands of Afghans face death and destruction from US-NATO bombing and forced to abandon their villages and become internally displaced only to face imminent death.

According to the Afghan Ministry of Public Health 1.6 million children under the age of 5 and 625000 child bearing age women are at risk of dying from variety of reasons including lack of food and shelter for those internal displacement due to bombing by US-NATO forces. While people in the US and Europe celebrate the birthday of Jesus (PBUH) the people of Afghanistan mourn the death of their beautiful children and women. That is why, for the Afghans it is the season of killing when the rest of world enjoy the season of giving, Afghans are forced to receive death and destruction in part at the hands of those that supposedly believe in the season of giving.

While the American children receive the gifts they desire, Afghan children lose their limbs and lives and cry after a piece of bread. Many children wait for their fathers to take them shopping only to have their fathers return home dead soaked in blood. Last week, 5 children waited for their father, Nafay, to take them shopping for shoes. The children were excited since the EID holiday is approaching this coming Monday, their excitement turned into an unbearable pain of seeing their father shot many times by US forces. These children will remain without a father with no one there to care for them during winter or to sustain them. That was the gift they received during the season of giving-Christmas; for them, it is the season of killing.

While you the good people of the world celebrate your season of giving-Christmas, the parents of Afghanistan have to witness the death of their children due to extreme cold, hunger and contamination by uranium munitions caused by the relentless bombing carried out on daily basis by US-NATO forces. These internally displaced Afghans are forced to abandon their villages after their villages are bombed.

Since these camps are makeshift camps and lack even the most primitive tents, when it rains or snows, the few household items they were able to carry with them are soaked wet. These poor souls have to sleep in their beds. The elderly and children are stricken with pneumonia and other dreadful illnesses. The result is most obvious when one visits these camps, a painful sight of large number of graves signaling the painful departures of their young ones.

I hope that the good people here in the West turn the season of killing experienced by Afghans, living the most dreadful thing that no parent anywhere wants to experience seeing their children losing their last breath. If you like these poor people see another side of America and the West, help them by donating at www.afghanistanafterdemocracy.com or contact me at mdmiraki@ameritech.net I have appealed for these poor people in my previous piece "Internally Displaced Afghans and Imminent Death" at http://www.rense.com/general84/intt.htm

Care to keep it a season of giving?

Mohammed Daud Miraki, PhD
www.afghanistanafterdemocracy.com
mdmiraki@ameritech.net
5347 North Ravenswood Ave
Chicago, IL 60640