A picture in today’s Times of mothers dropping off their children at a Baghdad school made me feel sad and disgusted; that’s why I write this.

How do they do it? The mothers. The fathers. The children. The teachers. How do they manage to do such normal things amid such abnormality as Bush’s American war, rampant terrorism, their city in ruins, their city under siege?

Those children deserve a life like our children. To be: carefree, playful, full of joy. To be children.

What about the mothers?

They, like all mothers, must want what’s best for their children. Screw the politicians, the war makers, the terrorists, the killers…

Mothers want safety, routine, and all that is good for their children.

In the month of July and August 5,106 people in the capital were killed, a figure much higher than reported before.

In this environment of death and dispair, these families are heroic to carry on. They still have hope despite…

Contrast the first day of school in Baghdad with the first day in Brooklyn. Here, the first day is all about the excitement of the new: teachers, classes, books, clothing, friends, hopes.

There is nervousness of course. But it’s not about an American war or terrorists: it is simple first day jitters.

How lucky our kids are to feel just simple first day jitters.

Our kids don’t have to live in a violent city without infrastructure, electricity, garbage services, water. The death and dispair and disruptions of war.

How sad for those mothers and children and teachers in Baghdad on their first day of school.

It is those struggle in a worn torn country to do the normal things who are the heroes. The parents, the teachers, the children. Those who carry on. Who put back the pieces, who do what they can.

THIS UNJUST WAR (THIS DECEITFUL WAR) MUST END.