With the United States mourning the death of former President George Herbert Walker Bush, several Iraqis from families that were bombed during the Persian Gulf War expressed their condolences and paid tribute to him.

“Bush knew how to raise the morale of U.S. military forces by unleashing tons of radioactive bombs, which would poison generations of my family,” said Sama. “Khalil was born with his kidney on his face, but we kept him alive as long as we could for the sake of the ‘New World Order.'”

Nasim shared fond memories of the savage form of dysentery he contracted during the war. “I was young. I had a whole future of U.S. military occupation to look forward to in my life, and you could taste the uranium as it crept into the water supply.” He paused. “Ah, those were the days.”

“He was a sock man until the day he died,” said Zaha. “I believe it was his idea to drop socks with colorful animals in our province when we needed medicine and food.”

Remembering the “essential goodness” of Bush, Tariq reflected, “A hundred thousand of my people died. Many starved to death. Yet, Bush the First was a gentleman and said, let’s declare victory after a month. Stop the war here. We can come back and kill more later. Can you imagine an American president doing that today?”