SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
isil
Iraq: A Nation Destroyed by American Contempt
Jun 16, 2015
Iraq's dismal health situation is testimony to the invasion of the country by foreign forces, including now the takeover of important parts of its territory by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The Iraqi people have been the subject of mass executions, rape, torture and, in addition, the destruction of the country's infrastructure. The international community has been mostly deaf to the needs of Iraqis, who have undergone difficulties much greater than during the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Dr. Margaret Chan, the World Health Organization Director-General stated recently, "The situation is bad, really bad, and rapidly getting worse," as she launched a new humanitarian plan for Iraq. If they don't receive appropriate support, 84% of all health projects and centers run the risk of closure before the end of June.
It is estimated that since January 2014, 2.9 million people have fled their homes, 6.9 million Iraqis need immediate access to essential health services, and 7.1 million need easier access to water, sanitation and hygiene assistance. Presently, 8.2 million people in Iraq need immediate humanitarian support.
Women and children have not been spared the brutal consequences of the war. Survivors of gender-based violence and rape experience trauma and depression, and suicides among women and girls have risen markedly in recent years. Children's health status has deteriorated markedly in the last 12 years. In addition, they have been used as suicide bombers and human shields and have been killed by crucifixion or buried alive.
Iraqis health status is a reflection of the deterioration of the country's health system. Medical facilities, which in the 1980s were among the best in the Middle East, have deteriorated significantly after the 2003 invasion. It is estimated that during the war 12 percent of hospitals and the country's two main public health laboratories were destroyed.
Sanitary conditions in hospitals remain unsatisfactory, and medications and trained personnel are in short supply. Even basic health care is unavailable in regions of the country under armed conflict. As a result of the collapsed sanitation infrastructure, the incidence of cholera, dysentery and typhoid fever has increased. Malnutrition among children and other childhood diseases have also increased.
Doctors in the thousands have been leaving the country and those that remain are under constant threat to their personal safety. As Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) stated, "Until now, it is extremely difficult to find Iraqi doctors willing to work in certain areas because they fear for their security."
Despite some government aid and reconstruction plans, several remote areas are excluded from state reconstruction and development efforts, leaving thousands of Iraqis without access to essential health care up to this day. As a result, thousands of Iraqis are obliged to sell their homes and possessions to seek health care abroad.
The widespread environmental damage caused by the war, including the degradation of forests and wetlands, destruction of wildlife, and increased air pollution, will have long-term impacts on people's health. In addition, medical researchers have expressed their concern about people's health being seriously affected by the use of white phosphorus and depleted uranium by American and British forces.
The continuing conflict has exacted a heavy toll on all Iraqis' mental health and quality of life. "Many Iraqis have been pushed to their absolute limit as decades of conflict and instability has wreaked devastation. Mentally exhausted by their experiences, many struggle to understand what is happening to them. The feelings of isolation and hopelessness are compounded by the taboo associated with mental health issues and the lack of mental healthcare services that people can turn to for help," said Helen O'Neill, MSF's head of mission in Iraq.
We are facing nothing less than the almost total destruction of a country by an ill-advised invasion whose consequences are still being felt. Some day, somebody will have to respond for it.
Keep ReadingShow Less
I Am a Patriot. Stop This Madness. No More Killing In Our Names.
Nov 17, 2014
On Thursday, November 13, I dropped down in my seat at the hearing room of the House Armed Services Committee on the Administration's Strategy and Military Campaign against ISIL, a little depressed at what was to come. More war, less hope for peace. Just two days earlier, on Veterans Day, I was at the widely advertised and well attended "Concert for Valor" on the National Mall. Veterans Day was previously known as Armistice Day, started after WWI as a day to celebrate an end to war. Now it's a day to glorify warriors, and I was threatened with arrest for having a sign that read "Celebrate the Peacemakers."
The moment I sat down in the Congressional hearing and heard the conversation between Chairman Buck McKeon and the witness Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a warm rush of thoughts came over me that made me feel very nostalgic. Here I was, after 13 years that has not only brought our country deeper in wars, deeper in debt, but also made us less safe and less free. I started thinking about my father. He fought in the "good war", World War II. He was only 18 years old when he was sent off to war. Then came my older brother. He joined the army to go to Vietnam because he got a low number in the draft lottery. Meanwhile, my sister joined the anti-war movement--marching, fighting and being beaten at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago trying to end that war and get our brother back, alive. I remembered my father's disappointment that his son had to go fight for his country thousands of miles away while our hometown city of Detroit burned with racism--a racism that disregarded the rights of so many who were also fighting for their country in foreign wars.
And now me, protesting for 10 years against a crazy, endless war in the Middle East that my country's leaders can barely understand, let alone explain to its people. For my two boys, growing up in the wake of 9/11, all they know is war.
I sat there listening to the war talk, unable to recall what it was like before 9/11 - before endless war, hate, and division. Before "Take off your shoes and your belt" at the airport. Before "No signs allowed" on the National Mall. Before NSA watching over us "for our own safety."
And then it happened. I felt a rush of freedom and patriotism--the same feelings I used to have before being told to live my life in fear. I wanted those values again. I know the truth. I've been there. Seen it. My father, brother and sister taught me. "You live in the United States, land of the free, home of the brave" they said. Their words were ringing in my ears. "You are a patriot, my son," my mother told me when I was arrested for protesting in the House Gallery at the beginning of the Iraq war. Yes I am! A Patriot! I serve my country with my consciousness and fearlessness in the face of a fearful nation and government intimidation.
I will stand up to Secretary Hagel and this spineless Congress, I decided. I will smile and tell them that they don't know what they are doing and that I will not be part of their insane wars. Ha! Enlightenment! The Emperor has no clothes! It is my job, my service to this country, my children, in the memory of my father and the brave ones before me to shout it out.
"American intervention is the problem!" I stood up and shouted out. I'm not weak but strong, able to do this duty for God, country and family. "Stop this madness!" "No more killing in our names!" Proudly, I held up my not-allowed-in Congress sign that said: "There is no military solution."
Forward toward freedom, I thought. "Bring our war dollars home!" I shouted. Oops, swish, boom. I am dragged out the door of the hearing room by several police. Smash, clink, clank. I face into the wall in the hallway immediately outside the House chamber. Cuffs on. A smile on my face. I am my father's son and a good brother, I thought. This is the "good war." I am a patriot, serving my country the best that I know how. I smile more, shout more. "We are America, we can use diplomacy, we can lead the way to peace. Hallelujah!"
So wake up America, fear ye not! Blessed are the peacemakers for they can get bullied off the National Mall by Park Police, arrested in Congress for holding signs, or carted off in paddywagons. But their voices will never be silenced.
Keep ReadingShow Less
When Will US Admit Boots on Ground in Iraq (3000 Troops)?
Nov 08, 2014
President Obama's announcement that he will send 1500 more troops to Iraq was made on a Friday, a day usually reserved in Washington for the release of bad or embarrassing news that officials hope won't still be fresh enough for Monday's newspapers and so will quietly sink.
That these troops will be sent with Iraq soldiers to al-Anbar Province belies the administration's repeated denial that it will put boots on the ground. There will soon be 3000 US troops in Iraq. They will be at the scene of battles, embedded with Iraqi units (apparently in the hope that the Iraqi troops will be too embarrassed to run away en masse again in front of foreign guests).
The growing size of the US contingent is not the only news. The US is reestablishing a "command" in Iraq, which administration officials view as necessary to rebuild, or more frankly to build, an Iraqi army. Former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (in office 2006-2014) appears to have installed so many corrupt and incompetent officers on the grounds they were loyal to him that the institution may as well not exist. Half of enlisted men are said to be ghosts, who don't show up to their postings because they can bribe their commanding officer into letting them be absent.
If there are US troops on the front lines in al-Anbar, where ISIL has been expanding its reach in recent months, then unfortunately, there are likely to be US casualties. These are boots on the ground, even if there are not combat platoons going into battle by themselves.
If ISIL really is a dire threat to US security, as administration officials maintain, then they should go to the US public with the news that they are going to have to put thousands of US forces on the ground in Iraq. So far they are trying to spin us, and to pretend that there are just some trainers and advisers. It is far more than that; US special operations forces will be operating in Iraq brigades, likely in part to paint lasers on targets for US warplanes to bomb.
In an age of weasel words and Orwellian diction, it would be refreshing to hear Mr. Obama call this escalation what it is. It is not as if he will be running for office again or needs to win a popularity contest.
For more:
Obama Authorizes 1,500 More Troops for IraqA senior military official says that American military advisory teams will now go to Iraq's western Anbar province where Islamic ...
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular