Our Great Record in Iraq: Suffering Children

Who do we believe? Not Bush. Not anyone who says everything is going well in Iraq. UNICEF, an organization of great integrity and long-standing record of compassion, reports that the children of Iraq are in dire straits. Hundreds of thousands of them are today suffering the severe effects of diarrhea and nutrition deficiencies. Malnutrition has doubled since the US invasion. Didn't anyone in our government think of the catastrophic result of unsafe water and sewage treatment? Why can't the most affluent country on the planet provide water for the people in Iraq? Why can't we provide electricity? What are the billions and billions of dollars going for?

Almost eight percent of Iraqi children younger than five suffer from chronic diarrhea and protein deficiency, according to UNICEF's latest reports. Diarrhea is responsible for 70% of child deaths there. Most are caused by unsafe water. Water treatment plants have suffered greatly. Forty percent of the water system has been damaged. Sewage treatment plants no longer work because of problems with the electrical supply, poor maintenance, and damage caused since the invasion.

We are destroying Iraq to save it, so they say. This is insanity. We removed a brutal dictator. Yeah for us. However, the greatest sin is that we have destroyed Iraq and left it in shambles. We have destroyed the lives of the Iraqi people. They have few jobs. They have minimal electricity. The price of petrol is sky high, and the lines at the gas pumps go for miles. It takes hours, if not days, to get gas. The cost of food is extremely high. The hospitals are destroyed, and doctors have very little medicine. (The US troops destroy the hospitals because they do not want anyone to know how many have died, and hospital staff can provide that information.)

But the worst tragedy of all is the suffering children. They have done nothing to deserve this. You would think that the US could have foreseen the needs that are now in crisis mode. Did our president and our department of defense just not care? Of course, we know that they do not listen to anyone, except those who praise them. So I guess they haven't heard. Do they deserve the benefit of the doubt?

I think not.

[Click on the blog title to read an article about malnutrition in Iraq since the US invasion.]