Two years ago Boston.com told the sad story of an Iraqi boy named Rakan. US soldiers had mistakenly fired on his family's vehicle - killing his parents and paralyzing the boy.
It was one of those stories where humanity tries valiantly to address inhumanity.
An outpouring of goodwill brought Rakan to the US for treatment. A group of committed backers got him what he needed. His condition improved - although he was still paralyzed. He new friends got him what he needed, bt not what he wanted - to be returned to Iraq.
They relented - and Rakan went home.
Kevin Cullen picks up the story:
As we waved, and the car driven by Rakan's brother-in-law disappeared into the dust, Larry Ronan must have felt what I was feeling because he put his hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye, and said, "Don't worry. We'll see him again."No storybook finish, no TV ending - just the cold reality that bad things happen in dangerous places. To anyone.
We never did.
Rakan Hassan, the boy whose life Larry Ronan saved, the boy I sat with most days for five months, the boy who became my sons' friend, the boy who touched anybody and everybody he met, was killed in June when a bomb exploded at his family's home in Mosul. He was 14 years old. Two of his sisters - an infant and a teenager - were injured in the attack but are expected to recover.
It happened June 16, but given the madness that is Iraq, it took us weeks to confirm. We got a death certificate the other day and so now we know for sure.
Whatever we end up doing for this boy's country, all we did for him added up to one more senseless death.
Whatever happens in the next few years, we're still going to have a hard time answering the question
What did we do here?
What got accomplished?
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