Humanitarian Disaster Caused By Bush Barbarians

September 24, 2007


Ever since the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, there have been two parallell litanies from the invaders. They cannot leave until 'Iraq can stand on its own feet' and it's army and police can maintain order. The other is the mantra of 'thirty years of neglect' of Iraq's infrastructure and Iraqis inability to repair it themselves.Here is something worth repeating, yet again. Before the invasion Iraq was an efficient, functioning society, whose state institutions and ministries operated with near bribe free and accountable efficiency.The army and the police were loyal to the state and not to factions.The factionality and militias now absorbed in to both, came in with the invasion (and many seemingly, are not even Iraqis or had abandoned their Iraqi nationality and taken the now increasingly worthless Dollar.)Until the crippling thirteen year embargo (implemented, under George Bush Snr., 6th August 1990) Iraq had undergone thirty years of extraordinary progress and emerged 'a near first world country', according to the U.N., whose US/UK driven embargo, created a quiet holocaust and denied essential parts and replacements for every vital service and industry. Even X-ray and dialysis machines lay idle, for want of imported parts; blood banks no longer functioned due to sporadic electricity denying laboratory tests and refrigeration.In 1992, the U.N., cited a report by Beth Osborn Daponte which concluded: ' ... life expectency has been reduced from (an average of) sixty eight years (pre 1991) to forty seven years by late 1991'. A chilling, shameing and astonishing achievement in under two years in the name of ' We the people ...'


However, since the 2003 invasion, inspite of the telephone number $billions squandered, embezzled and disappeared and the $billion contracts awarded to all the usual suspects, the health service and infrastructure is now worse than under the embargo. Seriously sick and injured U.S., and 'allied' soldiers are rushed to state of the art hospitals in their bases, which there seemed to have been no trouble in rapidly building from scratch. In the 'New Iraq', sick Iraqis, bombed, ruined, irradiated, abandoned and ruled by quislings, quietly die. ' We will reduce Iraq to a pre-industrial age', said James Baker, in 1991. The forty two day, U.S., led carpet bombing did, but Baker could not have dreamed of the improvement on his vision, the second time round - and rising to new heights each of the invasion's genocidal, criminal, fifty four months.Now, courtesy of Uncle Sam, cholera has struck with, according to World Health Organisation spokesperson, Fadel Chaib, twenty nine thousand confirmed cases, mostly in the north, but with a seven month old bottle fed baby in Basra now confirmed and two cases seemingly, in Baghdad with others uncomfirmed. Since Iraq's water has long been a biological weapon, this was a disaster waiting to happen. Interestingly, Adel Muhsin, Iraq's 'Health Ministry Inspector General', thus America's friend, states that 'cholera is endemic to Iraq.' As ever, it is far more complicated.Iraq as all tropical countries is suscepticle to water borne diseases. It also has a highly complex water system, with : ' The quality of untreated water "generally .. poor;" drinking such water "could result in diarrhea," Iraq's rivers "contain biological materials, pollutants, and are laden with bacteria. Unless the water is purified with chlorine, epidemics of such diseases as cholera, hepatitis, and typhoid could occur." ' This comes from an astonishing document, discovered by Thomas J. Nagy, Associate Professor of Expert Systems, at George Washington University, in 2000, from the U.S., Defence Intelligence Agency.

However, such was the investment and care in Iraq's water system, water borne diseases plumetted and figures 1989-1990 (the embargo was implemented on 6th August 1990) that the Iraqi Health Ministry statistics show cholera as nil, typhoid fever as just 1,812 (in a population of twenty five million) amoebic dysentry as 19,615 and polio, just ten. In 1992 there were 2,100 reported cholera cases, 19,276 typhoid cases (an increase of 1060 %) 61,939 of amoebic dysentry (increase 320%) and 120 cases of polio (increase 1200%.)The primary document, Nagy - who also has a Docotrate in Public Health - discovered was entitled: "Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities," and dated January 22, 1991.(The bombing of Iraq by thirty two nations had started on 17th January.) The document, circulated to all Central Commands spells out the clear intention to bomb all Iraq's water purification and treatment facilities and how continuing sanctions will prevent Iraq from supplying clean water to its citizens.'Iraq depends on importing specialized equipment and some chemicals to purify its water supply, most of which is heavily mineralized and frequently brackish to saline," the document states. "With no domestic sources of both water treatment replacement parts and some essential chemicals, Iraq will continue attempts to circumvent United Nations Sanctions to import these vital commodities. Failing to secure supplies will result in a shortage of pure drinking water for much of the population. This could lead to increased incidences, if not epidemics, of disease', the DIA document states.
Further, food and medicines will also be affected, the document states. "Food processing, electronic, and particularly, pharmaceutical plants require extremely pure water that is free from biological contaminants," it says. A timetable for the health decimation of the people of Iraq resulting from the loss of clean water, is carefully explained: "Iraq's overall water treatment capability will suffer a slow decline, rather than a precipitous halt," it says. "Although Iraq is already experiencing a loss of water treatment capability, it probably will take at least six months (to June 1991) before the system is fully degraded."Connected Pentagon documents discovered by Nagy include itemizing likely outbreaks, including: ' "acute diarrhea" brought on by bacteria such as E. coli, shigella, and salmonella, or by protozoa such as giardiasis, which will affect "particularly children," or by rotavirus, which will also affect "particularly children," a phrase it puts in parentheses. And it cites the possibilities of typhoid and cholera outbreaks', he writes. Giardiasis was recorded at 73,416 cases in 1989-1990 and at 596,356 in 1992 (a rise of 810%.)



The Geneva Convention, of course, is unequivocal, as Nagy points out:: ' The 1979 Protocol, Article 54, states: "It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive."

' But what do rogue states care of the Geneva Convention?


Indeed...



In the face of a mountain of evidence, this placed president of commerce, still says, "we do not torture."



I guess now we really know what he means by "no child left behind," with the Bush family running the USA there likely will be no child left on the planet.


The complete article is located at: http://www.countercurrents.org and has extensive details and links for support.

Thomas Nagy is a Member of the Association of Genocide Scholars, who concluded that the deliberate destruction of Iraq's water system in 1991 was genocide. It seems they have a lot more work ahead. Oh, and the invasion of Iraq was sold to the American public, by their Administration linking Saddam Hussein to 11th September 2001 and Osama bin Laden. It was not Saddam, but the Bush family who were in business with the Bin Ladens.What wickedness.

References:
Medical deprivation under the embargo:The Fire This Times, US War Crimes in the Gulf, Ramsey Clark, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1994.
Destruction of Iraq's Water: How the US Deliberately Destroyed Iraq's Water, Thomas J. Nagy, Global Research, 29th August 2001 (with links to DIA papers.)
Allies Deliberately Poisoned Iraq Public Water Supply, Felicity Arbuthnot, Sunday Herald, 17th September 2000.
The War on Truth, Neil McKay, Sunday Herald Books, 2007.
Iraq Progress and post 1991 Water Projects:Iraq - Thirty Years of Progress, Ministry of Information and Culture, Iraq, 1998 and author's numerous regional interviews and eyewitness.