The Poster Boy

DuckSeason ^ | April 15, 2002 | Denis Boyles

[TheToddinator]

During the last week of the conflict in Iraq, the British press has given few Iraqis as much ink as Ali Ismail Abbas, the badly burned 12-year-old who lost his mother, his father and his arms during an American airstrike. His story is profoundly and obviously tragic...

In today’s Daily Telegraph, Ali Ismail Abbas finally hits back: "'The journalists always promise to evacuate me - why don't they do it now?' he asked, his brow furrowed with pain and glistening with sweat." Day after day, reporters and camera crews have wallowed into Ali’s view, making promises they can’t keep.

[TheToddinator]

The British press will stoop at nothing to make America look bad...

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[xJones]

He has listened to the hacks and listened to their promises. But no more. "'You are coming to make fun of me because I have lost my arms?' he asked. 'Doctor, doctor, no more journalists please.'"

That poor boy. Why haven't the British press anted up and taken care of him?

[Utah Girl]

This boy was taken to Kuwait yesterday, flown by the US military. The doctors told them at the hospital that they didn't have the means to care for him so the military flew him to Kuwait. I feel sorry for him, he has a long tough road ahead of him, but he was soooo cynically used by the press.

[Utah Girl]

I am going to post the rest of the article. The UK newspapers slam the US as not being interested or doing anything, but guess who flew him to Kuwait for treatment???

"The Mirror launched an appeal on Ali's behalf and the London Evening Standard used his face to launch their Red Cross 'victims of war' appeal," the Telegraph’s man reports. He has listened to the hacks and listened to their promises. But no more. "'You are coming to make fun of me because I have lost my arms?' he asked. 'Doctor, doctor, no more journalists please.'"

Because journalists in Iraq are large on compassion, they will perhaps spare Ali Ismail Abbas the truth: that if he were Rageh Omaar or Michael Moore or Christiane Amanpour or Daniel Schorr he’d be at Johns Hopkins by now and his agent would be handling the press. The Independent places the blame for the media’s broken promises on the Americans: "'He has been on the news every night for nearly a week in Britain,’ a spokeswoman [for the British Limbless Association] said, 'and, as a result of donations, we can afford to medi-vac him from the area. But that is not the case with US television. There just doesn't seem to be the will from the Americans.'" According to a commentary by the Guardian's US-based correspondent, the problem is Americans just don’t care about images of bodies torn by war - unless they happen to be those of pretty coed POWs. After all, not even that long mention in The New Yorker - where Ali figures in an anguished "Letter from Baghdad" - can get Ali Ismail Abbas the help he needs.

Like many people who read about a city consumed in looting or American missiles landing in markets or US soldiers aiming to kill journalists, Ali Ismail Abbas believed the reporters in Baghdad, as they believed him. But unless Blair or Bush or some media company with enough money to match their promises can get him out of there, he's not only just one more casualty of the war, he's also another casualty of the Baghdad-based press that covered it so badly.