Future Shock
The future of Iraq will be in the hands of its children. In the latest issue of Newsweek, Christian Caryl shows us how those children are responding to the bloodshed and brutality that has surrounded them. In "Iraq's Young Blood," Caryl deftly describes some of the estimated 1 million Iraqi kids whose lives have been damaged by nearly constant strife such as Thaka, a 14-year-old boy from Baghdad.
On a warm June evening in 2005, Thaka and his father, Talib, were closing up their clothing shop in the south Baghdad district of Doura. Suddenly an unknown man stepped out of a car parked nearby and, without warning, fired a handgun into Talib's head and body—12 shots, until the magazine was empty. "I still remember the sound of the bullets," says Thaka. "It's like a dream to me." He fled, howling, deep into the city.
The accompanying photo gallery by Khalid Mohammed, Daniel Berehulak, Chris Hondros, Karim Kadim, Wathiq Khuzaie, Ahmad Al-Rubaye, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad and Karim Sahib is stunning and haunting. Michael Hastings, Scott Johnson, Ayad Obeidi, Ahmed Obeidi, Mohammed Sadeq, Christopher Dickey and Karen Fragala Smith contributed to the story.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16610767/site/newsweek/