Last weekend I reported the heart breaking tale of Iraqi parents who were tossing their children from the top of a mountain to avoid the only two perceived possible outcomes:
- That their children would soon die of thirst, or
- That their children would be captured by brutal Islamic State insurgents.
Now the plight continues to worsen. While the world debates the merits of a rescue mission, thousands of Iraqis are facing dire consequences of being trapped in the mountains without food or water.
Some parents have now become so desperate that they are literally letting their children feed upon their own blood in an effort to keep them alive.
The good news is that 8,000 Yazidis have now been able to escape. Unfortunately this leaves an estimated 30,000 still trapped.
On Wednesday The Daily Mail reported:
Children trapped on a mountain by Islamic State militants in Iraq are drinking blood from their parents to stay alive, it emerged today.
Their horrendous plight was revealed after some 8,000 Yazidis were finally able to escape down Mount Sinjar where they have been under siege from jihadist fighters for the last week.
Those fleeing have made it to relative safety at a camp in Dohuk Province in Kurdistan, where they have told horrific stories of the 30,000 who have been left behind.
Sky News correspondent Sherine Tadros, who is at the camp, said: ‘One man has just told us how he saw four children die of thirst.
‘There was nowhere to bury them on the mountain so they just put rocks on their bodies.
‘Another man was saying the children were so thirsty, their parents started cutting their own hands and giving them blood to drink.’
As a parent I consider myself very blessed to live in the USA. Despite our numerous and growing problems, I am not routinely faced with decisions like this. I can not imagine feeling so helpless as to throw my own child from the side of a mountain. I can’t imagine cutting myself and letting my child feed off of my very blood.
As parents we do what we feel is right, but when it seems like there is no way out people will make desperate decisions. It is a matter of survival or, in some cases, a submission to the method of death that is thought to be the most humane.
Please pray for these people. Whether they are Christian, Yazidi, or simply the wrong type of Muslim does not matter.
They are staring the reality of pure evil in the face and doing whatever they can to survive.
For those of you who do not believe in the existence of a higher power (in my case the God of the Bible), please tell me how you can explain the obvious existence of a lower power that is at work in Iraq.
This is evil fully manifested and this is your wake up call.
Some things are too big for man to fight alone.
I encourage you to ponder that today as you enjoy the benefits of one of the most wonderful and blessed countries on the face of this earth.
