The story out of Iraq a while back about the orphanage inhabitants found bound and starving keeps repeating on me, resonating on so many levels that I'm not yet able to leave it rest.

When first reported, I wrote about it from the angle of what can happen when adoption is not an option.

A bit later, it was the dependence on the kindness of strangers that grabbed me.

Today, however, after reading an Iranian version of the details based on Aljazeera coverage I am so angry at a world where children have no power and little value that I could ... and did ... scream.

To recap, on June 10th, 24 boys between the ages of three and fifteen, most mentally handicapped, were discovered by a group of US soldiers naked, tied to beds and bound on the floor, covered in their own waste and being starved.

In the same facility was a kitchen full of food and a locked storeroom stocked with new clothing that was apparently ready to be sold at local markets. The people in charge have now 'disappeared'.

Here's some of the Iranian coverage:

The case has infuriated parents of the children. "If we were living in a normal country, I would have sued these criminals," said the father of two of the boys. "But we are living in complete chaos," he added.

The father, who refused to be identified, left his children in the orphanage after becoming a displaced person nearly two years ago.

"What can we do? They became a heavy burden on us. We decided to send them there and we still can't take them back because of our harsh living conditions," he said.

Harsh living conditions? Is that meant to indicate that he's been tied up, covered in his own filth and starved? I don't think so. Unreliable electricity and water supplies and bombings by fellow countrymen following a different flavor of Islam, sure, but in comparison would you call that harsh ... especially if you were three?

The story goes on to detail the same lone stranger upon whose kindness children depend who has been named in every other story on the topic, an Iraqi volunteer who cares for orphans in a home in Sadr City, quotes a UNICEF statement about how dangerous a place Iraq is to be a child, then ends by asking this question:

Who’s to blame for the orphans’ ordeal? The negligence of the Iraqi government, or the unjustified U.S. invasion that degraded the lives of Iraqis in every possible way?

There's no question that an Iranian publication would chose to use this story in a quest for political mileage ... that's to be expected in today's world ... but I'd like to put pose a couple of additions questions: Does war negate all parental responsibilities? Or is it possible that mentally handicapped children would not be a priority in Iraq, no matter what?

I've not been able to find any information on model facilities for the handicapped that existed under Saddam's rule, nor programs for disabled children. Was there an Iraqi version of the March of Dimes in effect until the war started? Were Iraqi families encouraged to care for their special needs children? Were there Iraqi families taking in these special needs kids, formal adoption or not ... or Iranian's bringing disabled Iraqi children into their homes?

Were children so highly prized that even 'damaged' ones had value?

Continued in the next post.