[Harrison is a 5th grade student in the Portland, Maine area who chose to hold a fundraiser for little Noora as a result of a project that he’s doing for school. Harrison wrote about why he wants to help Noora and what he’s learned about, and feels about, war.]

I want to help Noora because I like helping people, especially people who are victims of war.

Ever since there have been humans on earth there have been violent conflicts. War is unnecessary and just brings death and destruction. It destroys homes and people’s lives. Sometimes if there is a good reason for war it might help to maintain peace by force but the Iraq war was unnecessary. There is not enough peace in the world. Nobody benefits from war.

The war affects us because it’s our country that is fighting a war and it’s not just an interesting story on the news about some other country. When it’s our neighbors and family that are going to war and dying then you realize that this is serious. It’s serious because their families will be sad if their family member dies. Even if they don’t die it’s sad to have them away from home.

The war is also injuring and killing innocent Iraqi citizens. Approximately 90,000 to 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed. If the U.S. soldiers see a Hussein loyal they might not have enough time to ambush them so they just send a missile or bomb into the building and it sometimes kills civilians. That is called collateral damage. At the beginning of the war the U.S. troops were also cutting off food, electricity, and water supply to the Iraqis by breaking the lines and pipes. It must have been scary to know that you might get bombed at any minute.