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Iraqi Youth Face Lasting Scars of War
Iraqi girls eye a U.S. soldier who was canvassing their Baghdad neighborhood. Many Iraqi children have been exposed to significant trauma.
(By Chris Hondros -- Getty Images)
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"Now the kid whose parent is killed by a Sunni or a Shia, what will be his future?" she said, also insisting that her full name not be used. "He will have a grudge inside him."
Child psychiatrists are noticing the sectarian divide affecting their young patients. Mohammed Quraeshi, a doctor at Ibn Rushed, recalled the day he treated two boys -- one 6, the other 9 -- who were suffering from anxiety.
"They faced harassment from children at their school. They demanded to know if they were Sunni or Shia." Quraeshi said. "This is too terrible to think that this can happen at this age."
'Desire to Seek Revenge'
Twenty-year-old Yasser Laith, short with a thin goatee and a cold stare, cannot sleep at night. When a rocket crashed into his family's house in the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya in November, he crawled into the kitchen and curled up in fear.
"Whenever I hear an explosion, I start trembling," mumbled Laith, as he waited at Ibn Rushed hospital for a 10-day supply of anti-psychotic drugs.
Another day, intense clashes erupted on his street, and U.S. combat helicopters hovered over the area. Laith grabbed an AK-47 assault rifle, rushed to his roof and began firing into the sky.
"My father is ashamed of me. I wanted to show that I was a good as the others," Laith said with a half-crazed smile. "After that I felt satisfied."
Today, he takes pills to help control his violence and stop him from hitting his two younger sisters or abusing his parents. Several of his friends, he said, had joined the Sunni insurgency. He, too, was tempted, especially after learning that one of his friends had been killed by the Mahdi Army.
"I had the desire to seek revenge," Laith said, smiling again.
When Laith left the room to go to the bathroom, his 57-year-old mother, Sahira Asadallah, said she was scared that her son would commit a crime or join an insurgent group. She wondered how long Laith would have to take the drugs, then answered herself: "This will only end with the end of the war."
