But the Purple Fingers and the Painted Schools...

Well, when we get past the suicide bombs and the insurgent attacks, we find that those other stories out of Iraq aren't so keen either.

Eleven-year-old Mahmoud al-Obaidi walks seven km every morning to get to work at a carpentry factory in Baghdad so he can save his bus fares..."I didn't have a choice. Work was the only option. I cannot deny that I would like to be at a school, learning like other children... More than a million youngsters work often enduring hazardous conditions, as well as being vulnerable to sexual abuse and violence, according to a report released at the end of 2004. The report was based on a nationwide survey in which 19,610 Iraqis participated.

Now to be fair to "Tamer the Bush" child labor was hardly unheard of in Iraq under Saddam, but...

"The lack of security and political uncertainties have left economic activities stunted and social safety nets disrupted, while unemployment and poverty have deepened. Under these circumstances, more children and youths have been driven to work or beg on the streets, or toil at various labour sites, often under hazardous conditions, in order to supplement dwindling family incomes," a spokeswoman for UNICEF, Ban Dhayi, told IRIN from the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Lovely.

Noted Pony Lover, Holden has more of them words from the piehole of Doofus Poppins.