Out of sensitivity, some friends have messaged me against posting photos of the Iraqi babies born disfigured as a result of US chemical warfare in Iraq. Since the nuclear bomb at Hiroshima & Nagasaki & Agent Orange in Vietnam, the US has a history of using chemical agents on civilian populations. The advocacy group ‘Birth defects in Fallujah’ & others are not posting the photos to promote pity nor certainly as a freak show. When I was a nun we worked with children with learning disabilities & severe physical disfigurement. They’re as human & loving as the rest of us & as the disability rights movement has taught us, as humans they are perfect just as they are. But suffering is involved for them & their families, especially if the harm was done through malpractice or violence like carpet bombing a civilian population with nuclear & toxic agents. We post the photos not to display their suffering but to expose the character of US chemical warfare & militarism.