from Juan Cole:
>The aid organization Oxfam estimates that a third of Iraqis, about 8
million persons, are in urgent need of aid, lacking potable water and
in many instances even food to eat. The BBC summarizes:
>> Nearly 30% of children are malnourished, a sharp increase on the
situation four years ago. Some 15% of Iraqis regularly cannot afford
to eat.
The report also said 92% of Iraq's children suffered from learning
problems. . .
It suggests that 70% of Iraq's 26.5m population are without
adequate water supplies, compared to 50% percent prior to the
invasion. Only 20% have access to effective sanitation.<<
These statistics strike as similar to the ones for Palestinians in
Gaza, which was under Israeli military occupation for decades, and
which is still in a kind of Israeli penitentiary. The Iraqi statistics
are worse, and were achieved more quickly. But foreign military
occupation clearly isn't good for a people, and one of its by-products
can be large numbers of malnourished children.<
but as Madeline Halfbright might say, "we think the price is worth it."
--
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
