There has been a controversial story going around. It all involves a certain little boy named Omran from Syria. The heart wrenching photo of this apparently shell-shocked boy has gone viral in social media. I will not re-post it here because it has already been circulated so much and also because the American media does so while ignoring thousands of other children where United States backed forces are responsible.  Yemen is but one that comes to mind, Afghanistan, Northern Pakistan and Palestine are a few others.

To be clear. I am not pro-Assad. I am not pro-Putin. I am not pro-Obama. I am for the Syrian people who deserve an end to this horror and a nation that is free from tyranny and inequality without any outside interference.  All wars are based upon lies and carried out by powerful entities seeking resources and dominance.  Therefore, being antiwar must mean anti EVERY war, or it is utterly meaningless.

Without a doubt the photograph of Omran is being used as a kind of propaganda tool to endorse continued and future US military interventions in Syria under the guise of humanitarian aid. But I am not so deluded to think that other imperialistic forces at play here are somehow angelic in this situation either.  It is a global, bloody and ruthless game of chess, and the people getting bombed do not care if the bombs have the Stars and Strips, Star of David, or a Crescent Moon on them. They care that they are getting bombed and want it to stop.  Period.

The photos are of a Yemeni girl standing in the ruins of her bombed out home after a US backed Saudi airstrike, a badly injured boy at a hospital in Gaza following US backed Israeli carpet bombings, and a dazed and injured boy following a US drone strike in Northern Pakistan. You will not see these go viral and you will never know their names.  But they, like Omran, deserve a better world than the one they have been given.

Kenn Orphan  2016