Free Republic

An Honest Mistake February 3, 2004 “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” I’ve always loved that ancient saying, whose author seems to be unknown. But in the age of democracy, it needs to be adapted: “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man loses every election.” Not quite as snappy, maybe, but it meets the facts. By now every blind American has heard that arms inspector David Kay has exploded the Bush administration’s justification for preemptive war on, and regime change in, Iraq: the dogmatic accusation that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction.” One-eyed...

Ali Ismail Abbas's dream has come true - he has been fitted with a new pair of arms. It will be a few months before he can fully use the prosthetics, but the 12-year-old Iraqi has made startling progress since losing his arms - and his parents - in a US missile attack on Baghdad just six and a half months ago. Getting new arms and "being whole again" was the first in a long list of goals he set himself, which still include driving a car, eating with a spoon, brushing his teeth and eventually supporting his six sisters...

LONDON (AP) - An Iraqi boy who lost both arms in the war that toppled Saddam Hussein will be a messenger for peace in the world, a Kuwaiti health official said Monday. Ahmed al-Shatti, a Kuwaiti health ministry spokesman who accompanied Ali Abbas to London where he will be fitted with prosthetic limbs, said the boy was an example to children around the world. ``Ali has already decided to be a messenger of peace,'' al-Shatti told a news conference at Queen Mary's Hospital Rehabilitation Center in London, where Ali began treatment Monday. He said Ali and 14-year-old Ahmed Hamza, who...

An Iraqi boy who lost both arms in the Gulf War has thanked the British and Kuwaiti people for his new prosthetic limbs. Ali Abbas said his only wish is to have his family with him as he goes through his rehabilitation. But the 13-year-old's parents were killed in the bombing raid during the war in Iraq - the same raid in which he lost his arms. He made the comments at a press conference before his first appointment at the hospital rehabilitation centre where he is expected to be fitted with £20,000 prosthetic arms. Ali has been accompanied by...

An Iraqi boy who was orphaned and lost his arms in a US bombing raid early in the Iraq war has thanked Kuwait's prime minister for his health care and expressed hopes for his future ahead of a trip to England, where he will be fitted with artificial limbs and meet some of his extended family. "I want to be able to drive a car, God willing," Ali Abbas said shyly after meeting with Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah to thank him for his treatment and that of other injured Iraqis at the Kuwaiti government's expense. Ali, 13, and...

The badly maimed Iraqi boy who became an icon of civillian suffering in the Iraq war will get the most sophisicated replacement limbs available, his surgeon in Kuwait said Sunday.Doctor Ibrahim Ghaniem said 12 year old Ali Abbas, who lost both arms in a bombing raid on Iraq, was now out of danger. Doctors in Iraq had feared that Aabbas would die before he was airlifted last week to get specialist treatment. 'We are optimistic to provide him with a bio electric hand for the right and a prosthetic for the left, Ghaniem told the British Broadcasting Comany's 'Beakfast with...