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President Bush listens to Dr. Katrin Michael, right, Della Jaff and Idres Hawarry, foreground, in the Oval Office, Friday, March 14, 2003. The three are from the Kurdish area of Iraq where a chemical weapons attack killed 5,000 citizens 15 years ago [that] weekend. Thousands died in the days following the attack on Halabja and an estimated 10,000 people still suffer from the attack. Idres Hawarry survived the attack on Halabja, Dr. Michael survived a similar attack in another Kurdish village, and friends and family of Della Jaff were killed in Halabja.

President Bush says good bye to Dr. Katrin Michael, Della Jaff and Idres Hawarry, March 14, 2003, after speaking with them.

The next series of photos are very difficult to see, but I am a very big proponent of unvarnished reportorial truth. I urge you to steel yourself and view them. There are two photos in particular that I debated long and hard about posting on the thread, instead of just posting a link. I finally decided to just post a link, because there are children who might see this thread before an adult could intervene.

This is the first of the two photos I came close to openly posting. Trust me, folks, there isn't much in this world that shakes me to my core, but this photo did. It is of a young Kurdish boy. Difficult to tell his age -- maybe four or five. There is what looks like a ball near him. You can tell he's a beautiful child. He almost looks like he's asleep. Like maybe he got tired from playing and lay down for a nap. But he's dead. Lying in the dirt of Halabja with the froth caused by Hussein's chemical weapons covering the lower part of his face.

Kurdish boy.

Wow, those women were even communicating terror threat levels with their clothing colors, too!

...Course, SOME of us only see orange as a happy color, and have it as their favorite of all colors.... ;-)