Join the Culture of Life

From the White House website:

"In the debate about the rights of the unborn, we are asked to broaden the circle of our moral concern. We're asked to live out our calling as Americans. We're asked to honor our own standards, announced on the day of our founding in the Declaration of Independence. We're asked by our convictions and tradition and compassion to build a culture of life, and make this a more just and welcoming society."

- President George W. Bush, November 5, 2003

Too bad all that compassion doesn't extend to the kids once they've actually been born, especially if they are foreigners.

Marwa Hussein watched as gunmen stormed into her home and executed her parents. Afterward, her uncle brought her to the Alwiya Orphanage, a high-walled compound nestled in central Baghdad with a concrete yard for a playground. That was more than two years ago, and for 13-year-old Marwa, shy and thin with walnut-colored eyes and long brown hair, the memory of her parents' last moments is always with her.

"They were killed," she said, her voice trailing away as she sat on her narrow bed with pink sheets. Tears started to slide down her face. As social worker Maysoon Tahsin comforted her, other orphans in the room, where 12 girls sleep, watched solemnly.

Iraq's conflict is exacting an immense and largely unnoticed psychological toll on children and youth that will have long-term consequences, said social workers, psychiatrists, teachers and aid workers in interviews across Baghdad and in neighboring Jordan.

"With our limited resources, the societal impact is going to be very bad," said Haider Abdul Muhsin, one of the country's few child psychiatrists. "This generation will become a very violent generation, much worse than during Saddam Hussein's regime."

While Republican types often do not seem to even grasp the concept of hypocrisy, I think deep down a lot of them do. That's why so many of them have to listen to blowhards on talk radio repeat talking points for hours every day - it gives them some answer, no matter how ridiculous, to repeat ad infinitum when some example of hypocrisy is pointed out. It's a defense mechanism that also explains why talk radio is unappealing for most progressives, who can usually come up with their own arguments.

But I digress. The point is that this particular situation could and should be used to publicly and relentlessly point out the hypocrisy of nattering on about a "culture of life", when you support an endless and largely pointless war that has killed tens of thousands of innocent young people (on both sides). For example, the next time the anti-abortion folks have a sizable rally, there should be a contingent there to demand an end to the war - on "culture of life" grounds. While the fanatical hard core of the anti-abortion movement won't be shaken by this, as they don't see any dissonance between being anti-abortion and supporting airborne attacks on neighborhoods full of families, the juxtaposition will likely have an impact those they seek to influence. Which is why it is a point that should be made, over and over again, wherever the "pro-lifers" gather.