War wears Spider-Man T-shirts and loves soccer. But the dangers outside his parents’ home often force him to stay inside, where he’s glued to a computer screen.
His favorite game is “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.” He hijacks cars, steals motorcycles, shoots pedestrians and runs over bystanders on the street. Digital blood seeps from the bodies.
Most 6-year-olds aren’t allowed to play “Grand Theft Auto.” It’s too graphic. But War has seen real blood.
In 2006 he went with his brother to pick up kebabs when an explosion tore through the market. People ran from the bakery next door burning alive. But he wasn’t scared, he said.
His father ran to the market when he heard the blast, barefoot and frightened. A neighbor saw the two boys and pulled them away from the carnage.
War recounted the tale to his father, Mohammed Abd Badr, without a trace of fear.
That same year, War sat in the car as his dad drove down the dark streets of his neighborhood one night. A car stopped in front of them, and members of the Shiite militia, the Mahdi army, pulled a man from the trunk of the car and shot him.
They left him on the street and drove away. It was one of thousands of killings by street militias at the height of sectarian violence. The body was one of many that littered the streets like garbage in 2006 and 2007. Often, 50 bodies were found a day.
Badr got out of the car to see if it was someone from the neighborhood. Some boys distracted him briefly and warned him not to approach the body. When he turned, his son was gone.
War looked into the face of the dead Sunni man.
“What are you doing?” his father asked, running up to the little boy.
