Iraqi child dies by American bullets

Pigs and Pearls

I knew that it was bound to happen. Take 200,000 American troops, send them into "enemy" cities and stir. The recipe is guarranteed to result in the deaths of children. What I had hoped is that somehow my generation could escape the horror of knowing that children in Iraq had been killed intentionally.

Unfortunately, the front page of the April 8 issue of USA Today featured a story about the Army's 101st Airborne Dvision. To my dismay I read about how Pfc. Nick Boggs shot and killed an Iraqi child who was no more than 10 years old.

The child had reached down to pick up a rocket-propelled gernade in the middle of a horrific firefight between American forces and Iraqi irregulars. Boggs used his machine gun, which shoots about 600 rounds per minute, to remove the possible threat to U.S. troops.

"I took him out," Boggs said. "Of course I had a problem with it," but "I did what I had to do."

Humans throughout history have justified the killing of adults engaged in war. We rarely think about the orphans created by those deaths.

Now there is one less orphan in Iraq to think about. Shame on anyone who can justify that.

Adam Sharp is a junior modern foreign languages major.