(CNN) 'Silent victims': Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children no longer attend school

[sabra]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/03/19/iraq.children/index.html

'Silent victims': What will become of Iraq's children?

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Mustafa Karim, a fourth-grader, now lives with family members in a squalid camp in eastern Baghdad where displaced Shias go after fleeing their homes, often after relatives have been killed.

The young boy's eyes fill with tears when he recalls the circumstances that led to his exile.

"They killed my father and uncle in front of my eyes," he says.

He then breaks down sobbing. He can no longer speak. The anguish is unbearable.

Such stories are not uncommon in Iraq four years after the U.S.-led invasion. Health officials say the daily hardships -- bomb blasts, gunfire, killings of family members and sectarian violence -- are taking an increasing toll on Iraq's children.

Hundreds of thousands of children no longer attend school. Others have been forced from their homes to camps, while others have fled the nation with family.

[MissMillie]

1. So much for

"No Child Left Behind"

[goforit]

2. Fighting for your life makes you take a backseat to education.

[tanyev]

3. What? That's not what Laura Bush says every time she gets in front of a television camera.

[peacetalksforall]

4. Does Laura have a web site? E-mail? Do you think if she were

to respond that we would see (or read) a tear? Or would we get some nicely rounded nothing words? Or silence? No wind. No breeze. Nothing.