Custom Search

IRAQ IN HELL -- WHAT WESTERN 'DEMOCRACY' HAS ACHIEVED IN IRAQ

From: James Patton

To: Dick Eastman

Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 12:49 AM

Subject: Fw: Iraq in Hell-What Western "democracy" has achieved in Iraq

Iraq, which was once the most advanced Middle Eastern society -economically, socially, and technologically- has become an economic basket case, rivaling the most desperate countries in the world.

Consider only a small sampling of the devastation into which the illegal U.S. invasion (based on manifold lies) has pushed it.

More than a million Iraqis may have died; millions have fled their homes; many millions of others have been scarred by war, insurgency and counterinsurgency operations, imprisonment, torture, extreme sectarian violence, and soaring levels of common criminality.

The economy has been shattered, leading to high unemployment and an infrastructure unable to provide basic services. By the time Bremer left Iraq in the spring of 2004, the inhabitants of many cities faced 60% unemployment. Meanwhile, the country's agriculture, a key component of its economy, was also a victim of the U.S. dismantling of government establishments and services.

To reduce violence, the U.S. has essentially walled off most of the city of Baghdad into ethnic/religious enclaves. That makes it almost impossible for Sunnis to attack Shia and vice versa, of course, but it also makes it very difficult for people to move around as they might do in a relatively peaceful, post-conflict city.

However, education and medical systems have essentially collapsed and, even today, with every kind of violence in decline, Iraq remains one of the most dangerous societies on earth.

The electrical grid has decayed, water & sewage treatment facilities have been destroyed leading to cholera, teachers and academics have fled, schools degraded and the education system has been wrecked.

Controversial American 'depleted uranium' weaponry, lethal cluster bombs and other unexploded ordinance litters parts of the country.

Meanwhile, corporate war profiteering reigns unchecked. Most of Iraq’s reconstruction has been contracted out to U.S. companies, rather than experienced Iraqi firms. U.S. auditors and the media have documented numerous cases of fraud, waste, and incompetence. The most egregious problems are attributed to V.P. Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton.

The Iraq that has emerged from the American invasion and occupation is now a thoroughly wrecked land, housing a largely dysfunctional society.

Welcome to George W. Bush's Iraq.

- -

Barbara Bush's beautiful mind speaks of her family's private wars on the people of Iraq:

'Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? It's not relevant.

So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?'

- -

Four Winds 10 - News