Send your old stuffed animals & toys to Iraqi children

[NewHampshireDem]

From Parent Hacks blog:

I am speechless. I just got an email from Edmay Mayers, a member of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers who is currently stationed in Iraq. She read the post on where to donate stuffed animals, and offered her own suggestion:

Please, please, please – I know where you can give all the stuffed animals and toys away – I am presently stationed (deployed) in Iraq. The children here love the stuffed toys – I can hardly keep up with the cost of them – I am continuously ordering more and more from Oriental Trading Company and candy for the young ones too. If there is any way at all please have any and all sent to me at the address listed below and I will ensure that the children in Iraq receive all that is sent.


When I sent a followup note to be sure I had the proper address, here was her reply:

The mailing address is as follows:

Edmay Mayers
USACE - GRS
APO AE 09331

That is all there is --- it will reach me and I will give them to our PSD teams who will be more than happy to give them to the children. Please see attached photo of some of the children here that were given candy and stuffed animals on the road. These are the poorest of the poor here in Iraq - down the back roads. They are precious, innocent little ones who are just caught up in all the mess - they are beautiful.

More at: http://www.parenthacks.com/2006/09/spread_the_word.html

[fasttense]

1. God love her

She has probably done more to stop terrorism by her simple act than all the torture bush and our useless congress will ever do. Our troops know how to create goodwill, too bad the government isn't looking out for them.

[noamnety]

2. I strongly dislike this tactic

Some soldiers use toys innocently as goodwill, others do it deliberately to lure children to them, because they are less likely to be targeted if they are surrounded by children - the children end up being used as human shields, which is a war crime.

There was an article in the Washington Post about a captain deliberately spreading the toys for kids idea specifically as a troop protection strategy.

Several incidents have occurred where groups of children have been killed because they've been lured to US soldiers, who are sometimes attacked despite being surrounded by kids. In other words, the child-soldier interaction, while making the soldier safer, endangers the children because it brings them closer to obvious military targets.

Better to leave the donations to humanitarian organizations.

[NOLADEM]

3. Propaganda at the expense of children

This is a BAD idea.

The toys are used as propaganda here showing what good guys we are, while the children are placed in unnecessary danger and are made targets by coming close to our soldiers, who are of course constant targets.

Wanna help Iraqi kids? Demand that our 'kids' leave Iraq immediately, and in the mean time, have our soldiers actually working to restore some of Iraq's infrastructure instead of blowing it up.

[DainBramaged]

4. What better place to hide an IED?