"Children do die--Especially in times of war and revolution."

…This is one poet's quote.


I'm amazed at how he too has understood the symbolic meaning of Victor Hugo's Gavroche.
For the quote was in this context:

"I finally read the novel and
Hugo's words were so vivid
His characters, including Gavroche,
Still live in my mind."

It is of true comfort to me that someone else understands.

Robert Fisk reported this from Baghdad in April 2003:

"I watched two-and-a-half-year-old Ali Najour lying in agony on the bed, his clothes soaked with blood, a tube through his nose, until a relative walked up to me.'I want to talk to you,' he shouted, his voice rising in fury. 'Why do you British want to kill this little boy? Why do you even want to look at him? You did this – you did it!'"


"On television, it looks so clean. On Sunday evening, the BBC showed burning civilian cars, its reporter – 'embedded' with US forces – saying that he saw some of their passengers lying dead beside them.

That was all. No pictures of the charred corpses, no close-ups of the shrivelled children. So perhaps I should warn those of what the BBC once called a nervous disposition to go no further. But if they want to know what America and Britain are doing to the innocent of Baghdad, they should read on."



I submit a quote of my own:

In war and revolution, every child is Gavroche. In Iraq, every child is Gavroche.