Situation of children in Iraq 'a neglected crisis'
Nearly 700 children and young people were killed in the last five months.
The report warns that Iraq's children are being abandoned as international donors "sign up to the view that the mission has been accomplished".
The UK Department for International Development (DfID) pulled out of Iraq in 2012, and global development assistance fell by $19bn (£12.2bn) between 2005 and 2011, according to War Child.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22366451
= new reply since forum marked as read
... never mind the rest of this negativeness. 
As a guy who spent 13 months there in 2004, I take a lot of this very personally. As Americans, we are very fortunate that we don't have to worry about having a war like the one we inflicted on Iraq perpetrated on us by a foreign power.
I am so sorry for the part that I played in the war and, although it is a huge part of my identity, I feel mostly shame and guilt for what I did. At some point I'm going to have to come to terms with this, but I have no idea what I'm going to tell my daughters about my military service when she figures out that I was in the Army. Invariably kids will ask "did you ever have to fight in a war?" and if I say that I did the next question will be "did you ever kill anyone?". I'd imagine the next question after that would be "you only killed bad people, right?" or "were they bad people?". The problem and the thing is I don't think they were bad people. The guys who were fighting me were doing so because they thought they were doing the right thing for their families and communities and that is a feeling of duty that I can identify with and respect. So no, they weren't bad people. The guys who actually fight the wars like me aren't usually bad people. The people who lead us into these wars are the bad people.
Anyways, I'm getting way off the point of the OP here. Iraq is a pitiful shameful mess.
from the community and also the lack of caring by many in the general public.
We have to resolve the past in order to move forward and those who experienced war first hand need more time. Thank you for your service and wishing you peace in the months and years to come.
