That same year, War sat in the car as his dad drove down the dark streets of his neighborhood one night. A car stopped in front of them, and members of the Shiite militia, the Mahdi army, pulled a man from the trunk of the car and shot him.
They left him on the street and drove away. It was one of thousands of killings by street militias at the height of sectarian violence. The body was one of many that littered the streets like garbage in 2006 and 2007. Often, 50 bodies were found a day.
Badr got out of the car to see if it was someone from the neighborhood. Some boys distracted him briefly and warned him not to approach the body. When he turned, his son was gone.
War looked into the face of the dead Sunni man.
"What are you doing?" his father asked, running up to the little boy.
"Look baba," he said. "Poor man."
He's seen things a child should never see.
His parents try to protect him, but he asks questions.
"If he sees a man with a gun, he asks if he's going to kill someone," Iman, his mother, said as she baked bread in her home. "I don't know yet how it is going to affect him."
She looked at her son and held her daughter, not yet 2, in her arms.
"Our life is destruction, on top of destruction," she said.
War has never been to a playground and never been on a picnic. He's never been on a ride at an amusement park.
"He always asks to go out," his mother said. "He tells me, 'We haven't seen anything in our lives. Why are we like prisoners in our house?'"
Today, War turns 6. He's never had a birthday party. READ MORE
-mr
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