One in eight:
By on May 23rd, 2007 at 12:28 pm
One in eight:
Number of Iraqis who die before their fifth birthday. The “mortality rate among Iraqi children younger than 5 rose 150 percent between 1990 and 2005.”
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All part of the military plan to make sure the deaths of Iraqis goes down so stealing the Oil is easier
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:30 pmI can’t wait for the Bushivistas to try to spin this statistic…
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:32 pmthis is the result of 15+ years of wars and sanctions. Shouldn’t this be considered genocide? From my understanding, nearly 2 million have been killed by US aggression.
But, the politicians just brush it off as some unfortunate “statistic” if they even talk about it at all.
absolutely disgusting.
Some reading on this:
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:35 pm“Collateral Damage is Murder”
http://www.populistamerica.com/collateral_damage_is_murder
Doesn’t most of that time cover Saddam’s reign of terror? I think he nailed thousands of Kurd children in just one of his gassings. Thanks for the reminder of how horrible a despot he was.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:35 pmAs White House spokeman Tony Snow says it’s just numbers. The White House isn’t concerned about humans just numbers as with our troops. The United States was once a country of leadership that showed the world we were leaders in human rights. Then along came Bush/Cheney and now we’re like other terror countries that look to death as just numbers.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:37 pmI think he nailed thousands of Kurd children in just one of his gassings.
Comment by Eric — May 23, 2007 @ 12:35 pm
Brought to you by US chemical weaponry.
Thanks for the reminder of how horrible a despot he was.
and how Rumsfeld shook hands with him.
Eat that.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:38 pmHere is a list of successes in Iraqi children’s lives since American removed Hitler Jr from power. Seems like the work of human rights violaters are America hating libs like Jackie suggest:
1. A “back to school” campaign delivered 1,500 kits with book bags, notebooks, pens and pencils that helped 120,000 students in Baghdad return to their classrooms in May 2003. In preparation for the new school year, 1.2 million kits for secondary school students and 4,000 kits for their schools including desks, chairs, blackboards, and bookshelves are arriving in Iraq.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:39 pm2. Malnutrition contributed to high mortality rates in Iraq during Saddam’s rule. The food aid for Iraq has continued to supply the public distribution system and has allowed the majority of Iraqis access to food rations. On July 15, the World Food Program reported that nearly 1.5 million metric tons of food, or more than the three months supply required to keep the distribution system operating, have been dispatched to Iraq. An additional 2.2 million metric tons of food will arrive by the end of October. These steps will contribute to reversing malnutrition.
3. To date, 22.3 million doses of measles, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, and polio vaccines have been provided, enough to vaccinate 4.2 million children.
4. Nearly all Iraqi children have finished their exams from last year and are ready to start a new school year in the fall. All universities are reopened.
5. A $53 million program to rehabilitate more than 100 schools and clinics is underway. In the southern region, more than 50 schools are in various stages of rehabilitation. More than 600 schools will be in “like new” condition in time for the beginning of classes.
6. Five million revised math and science textbooks will be ready before the start of the school year.
7. Saddam Hussein’s rhetoric is being removed from Iraqi schoolchildren’s textbooks. In the words of Dunia Nabel, a teacher in Baghdad: “We want flowers and springtime in the texts, not rifles and tanks.” (The Chicago Tribune, July 31, 2003).
8. Ten delivery rooms in hospitals and primary healthcare centers in Basra have been rehabilitated and stocked with essential drugs and medical supplies.
9. The juvenile institution for children that was the subject of reports of abuse and appalling conditions under Saddam Hussein has been replaced by a project run by UNICEF and NGOs. Seven orphanages have undergone major building renovations and training for staff.
10. Nearly 3,000 soccer balls were shipped on May 30 and another 60,000 balls on their way to Iraq through a private/public partnership and the U.S. soccer community.
Hey Eric,
Since Saddam is DEAD and no longer gassing the Kurds, we’ll get the number up to one out of five in no time!
Frickin’ bloodthirsty apologist.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:42 pmHere is a list of successes in Iraqi children’s lives since American removed Hitler Jr from power.
Comment by Eric
Sorry, I havent read that. I thought you were 15+ y/o.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:45 pm#7 – Eric
Um, please cite that.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:49 pmEric sez:
First of all, that gas was sold to him bu the U.S.. Funny how we forget…
Second, from the article, Eric:
Of course, book bags, textbooks, and soccer balls will do much to alleviate this horror. Thanks, Amerika!
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:50 pmLet’s go a little further.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:50 pmWhat are the reasons or causes of death for this attrocious waste of life?
Eric,
Before you go supplying us a laundry list from the Ministry of Propoganda, maybe you should read the referenced article and notice how the following line completely contradicts what you wrote.
– Iraq’s infant mortality rate has increased by some 37 percent in the past four years
Hmmm. Isn’t four years the length of time that we’ve been spending billions to help reconstruct Iraq? At least that’s where the money is supposed to be going.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:53 pmEric is one of those sychophantic administration apologists who is so desperate to serve, so desperate to grovel, so desperate to lower the bar for his leaders, that he actually compares them to Saddam. “Hey, but at least Bush is (a little) better than Saddam!”
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:53 pmDoesn’t most of that time cover Saddam’s reign of terror? I think he nailed thousands of Kurd children in just one of his gassings. Thanks for the reminder of how horrible a despot he was.
Comment by Eric — May 23, 2007 @ 12:35 pm
I believe you are referring to the Anfal Massacre which occured form 1986 to 1989…or before this timeline.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:53 pm1990-2005….And who was president in the years 1993-2001?
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:56 pmYeah Zooey – you sound pretty rational. Why don’ t you go to your most extreme liberal congressperson – say Pelosi – and say “Hi, my name is Zooey, I believe the Bush administration is trying to kill children in Iraq. I believe this TP poll supports as evidence that this is his main goal”. Then watch as your most ardent supporter looks at you and dismisses you as the ultra nutcase you really are. She’d distance herself from you so quick your head would spin – because you are not rational. Not rational means irrational. Your new name is Irrational Zooey.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:58 pmSaddam Hussein was in power during 13 years of this 15 year period. He was deposed in April 2003. So, once again we see how Saddam’s reign was so utterly corrupt and destructive to the Iraqi people.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:00 pmEric,
Do you remember ’shock and awe’? What were the main components of that plan? How many innocent Iraqis died as a result of our bombing campaign? Oh, that’s right. We decided that we don’t want to count such a number. We’d rather mention that we sent over 30,000 soccer balls to show what a great compassionate nation we are.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:04 pmJust to keep some perspective and avoid propaganda streams from some posters here:
From the ever wikipedia:
Within just a few years, Iraq was providing social services that were unprecedented among Middle Eastern countries. Saddam established and controlled the “National Campaign for the Eradication of Illiteracy” and the campaign for “Compulsory Free Education in Iraq,” and largely under his auspices, the government established universal free schooling up to the highest education levels; hundreds of thousands learned to read in the years following the initiation of the program. The government also supported families of soldiers, granted free hospitalization to everyone, and gave subsidies to farmers. Iraq created one of the most modernized public-health systems in the Middle East, earning Saddam an award from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
To diversify the largely oil-based Iraqi economy, Saddam implemented a national infrastructure campaign that made great progress in building roads, promoting mining, and developing other industries. The campaign revolutionized Iraq’s energy industries. Electricity was brought to nearly every city in Iraq, and many outlying areas.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:07 pm#17 – Eric
**yawn**
Yeah, that was totally rational.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:09 pm/sarcasm
because you are not rational. Not rational means irrational. Your new name is Irrational Zooey.
Comment by Eric
Oh, I guess we are in front of another Cicerus or Von Neumann. Please, define sovereignity, Mr. President.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:09 pm“4… All universities are reopened.”
some related reading:
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i37/37a03501.htm
it starts out with:
“Iraq’s Universities Near Collapse
Hundreds of professors and students have been killed or kidnapped, hundreds more have fled, and those who remain face daily threats of violence”
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:09 pmYou guys keep clinging to that 1990-2005 figure. Maybe you should read the article and see things like:
“The report also said inadequate prenatal care has caused more birth defects and deaths, and that Iraq faced a grave humanitarian crisis even before the latest war. But most physicians here agree the 4-year-old conflict has had an unmistakable impact.”
“In Sadr City, the lack of prenatal care has become more significant since Ibn Al-Baladi was forced to close its obstetrics wing more than a year ago after it was damaged in fighting. Reconstruction is moving slowly, according to the hospital’s assistant director, Salam Mosan Bohan. For now, everything takes place in the main hospital.”
“– In 2005, 122,000 Iraqi children died before age 5, or 125 per 1,000. In contrast, 36 per 1,000 died before age 5 in Iran; 15 per 1,000 in Syria; and 7 per 1,000 in the United States.”
“- Only 35 percent of children are fully immunized.”
“– Iraq’s infant mortality rate has increased by some 37 percent in the past four years.”
Sorry, somehow hearing that we sent in 30,000 soccer balls and removed Saddam’s name from the textbooks doesn’t take away the sting of statements like these.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:10 pmGood post Juna C!! It’s true that Iraq gave back the most of its oil revenues to general social programs than other similar countries. Look at Saudi Arabia. The ruling family literally lives like kings. What social programs have they implemented other than stoning adulterers?
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:12 pmI suppose all of the internecine religious killings will be credited to Bush too. The problem with America haters is they use any tidbit of information and spin it towards there irrational belief system. It’s funny to watch you America haters grab news items and have it become a feeding frenzy of misinformation and spin.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:13 pmMore on the evildoer:
Saddam saw himself as a social revolutionary and a modernizer, following the Nasser model. To the consternation of Islamic conservatives, his government gave women added freedoms and offered them high-level government and industry jobs. Saddam also created a Western-style legal system, making Iraq the only country in the Persian Gulf region not ruled according to traditional Islamic law (Sharia). Saddam abolished the Sharia law courts, except for personal injury claims.
Domestic conflict impeded Saddam’s modernizing projects. Iraqi society is divided along lines of language, religion and ethnicity; Saddam’s government rested on the support of the 20% minority of largely working class, peasant, and lower middle class Sunnis, continuing a pattern that dates back at least to the British mandate authority’s reliance on them as administrators.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:15 pmIt’s funny to watch you America haters grab news items and have it become a feeding frenzy of misinformation and spin.
Comment by Eric
I like Brazil, Argentina, Chile, NIcaragua, Panamá, Canada and Mexico, which are the places I know in America. I dont hate it at all.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:16 pmEric
A “back to school†campaign
Of course with children around its much safer for US soldiers to walk the streets
Thats why the US give Iraqi children sweets – for Cover
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:17 pmWell Eric, who took over the country, created a vacuum of leadership, and failed to forsee what would happen afterwards? The answer would be you and the failed leader that you continue to worship.
Note the usual spin that if you disagree with Eric, you must be an ‘America hater’. Actually, I love this country. I hate what George Bush has done to its reputation around the world. We are now the laughing stock of the world. If anybody, it looks like Georgie is out to trash our fine country.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:18 pmAttention: Juan “Iran is not a threat” C now goes on record that Saddam’s reigh of terror was falsified information – it was really Utopia. Watch out for his next news release: Holocaust wasn’t real.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:18 pm#16 EXLEY
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:18 pmif you read the article before you start typing your knee-jerk reactionary rhetoric you would avoid making a moron of yourslef. But you know, blaming everything on Clinton is SO much easier than informing yourself right?
Saddam is as close to Nasser and the Saudi family as Hitler was to his idol Ceasar. Where are you getting this crap from?
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:19 pmWow, it takes a real twisted bunch to twist and cherry pick such a narrow statistic. For every statistic like this 100 can be spun the other way.
ROTFL
This site has been grasping at straws all week. Now that your congress has abandon you, trading votes on funding the war for bribe money.
ROTFL
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:21 pm“The problem with America haters is they use any tidbit of information and spin it towards there irrational belief system. It’s funny to watch you America haters grab news items and have it become a feeding frenzy of misinformation and spin.”
you’re right. we should all just cut and paste from the white house’s web site like you did. i guess you could believe what someone who’s sitting in washington d.c. has to say about iraq, or you could read what iraqis have to say about iraq (for instance, the state of higher ed., the reality of which is nothing like the white house’s talking point). here’s a link in case you want to see what’s really going on:
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i37/37a03501.htm
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:22 pmEric the Viking
American soldiers are issued candy that they hand out to Iraqi children to attract them to form a human shield.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:23 pmEric,
It’s very telling that your knee-jerk reaction is to attack anyone that mentions a positive point about Saddam. (Which is true BTW. They were not an Islamic nation.)
Can’t you admit that you failed to read the article which clearly points to a reduction in child medical provision since the war began? How do you rationalize us spending billions on reconstruction and getting results like these? Don’t you think someone should be fired for this?
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:23 pmit was really Utopia.
Comment by Eric
No, Utopia is an imaginary island in a book written by Thomas More. Later the idea was used by Robert Owen as a model of a factory community.
And, yes, Iran is not a threat, like Iraq, Granada, East Timor, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama…etc, etc, etc.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:24 pmHil,
Your posting makes no sense. The study looks at the years between 1990 and 2005. The fact is that between 1993 and 2001, it was not George W. Bush who was president. So, your desperate attempt to spin this report as a pure anti-Bush document falls flat.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:25 pmHey Vinnie, the answer to your question is
Bush!
And Hillary and Kerry and everyone else who voted to go in.
ROTFL, I love how you anti-Americans keep forgetting that fact. And before you whine about mis-information, remember what Presidency passed the information along.
ROTFL
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:26 pmOh, and Hil, If you read a little more closely, you’ll see that I don’t put the blame on President Clinton. I put it squarely where it belongs — on the late Saddam Hussein.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:27 pmHey, somebody please throw Happy Guy a bone.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:28 pmHappy Guy, you’re pissing me off.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:31 pmTobey, children can’t be used as human shields. Those terrorists you love so much don’t care about the childrens lives. They love to kill kids. Bombs on busses and all that stuff you support so much.
But Exley makes a great point. The statistic covers 15 years that are 7 years Republican and 8 years Democrat.
ROTFL
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:31 pmLiberal slant: We hate Bush because he “stole” the election from our hero Gashouse Gore, everything that comes from the White House is propraganda, Bush really wants to take over the world and we are the watchdogs, Pelosi just left us hanging even though we thought we had a mandate on the war from the last elections, we feel good commiserating on this website with those that share our conspiracists, irrational belief system. It must really suck being you.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:32 pmEric. CIA has been authorized (which is a formalism, CIA already operated in Iran, the only country where it hasnt been able to enter is China) by Bush to make covert operations (read Beirut bombing).
If you support that, next time US is hit, dont cry mommy.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:37 pm#39 EXLEY
Ive seen your posts before man, and I KNOW you are smarter than this. that article sites again and again issues which have occurred in the LAST 4 YEARS. It makes referance to infants who are dieing TODAY
here is an example if you are too lazy to click the link
– In 2005, 122,000 Iraqi children died before age 5, or 125 per 1,000. In contrast, 36 per 1,000 died before age 5 in Iran; 15 per 1,000 in Syria; and 7 per 1,000 in the United States.
oh look here is another: But most physicians here agree the 4-year-old conflict has had an unmistakable impact.
yes thats right… 2005!!! READ THE INFORMATION and stop being such a douche
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:38 pmyes thats right… 2005!!! READ THE INFORMATION and stop being such a douche
Comment by hil
Pomposity is a specialty of Exley’s, with side trips into intellectual dishonesty.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:41 pmThe bottom line is that as a result of our continued war efforts – which were pushed the hardest by Bush allies such as Wolfowitz and Cheney – the health of Iraqi children has significantly degraded. If you read the while report (which I doubt you did) that is clearly its conclusion. To quote Jack Nicholson “You can’t handle the truth!!”.
You can (and will) start discussing everything else in an attempt to distract people from the main point of the article. However, the truth of what is presented in the article remains and in no way has been refuted by you pathetic trolls.
That TP tells the TRUTH is why you feel so compelled to come here and dispute everything it says. THANKS for admitting that TP is the best site there is for telling the truth about what’s going on in the world!!
“Think Progress – The site that worries the Republican liars the most!!”
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:42 pm“Liberal slant: everything that comes from the White House is propraganda”
“reality’s slant”: it took 5 minutes and google to refute the nonsense that iraq’s universities are doing great, via an article that quotes actual iraqis living in iraq.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:43 pmLiberal slant: We hate Bush because he “stole†the election from our hero Gashouse Gore, everything that comes from the White House is propraganda, Bush really wants to take over the world and we are the watchdogs, Pelosi just left us hanging even though we thought we had a mandate on the war from the last elections, we feel good commiserating on this website with those that share our conspiracists, irrational belief system. It must really suck being you.
Comment by Eric — May 23, 2007 @ 1:32 pm
This is a perfect example of Eric’s methodology. Not a single word of this deals with the topic at hand. He throws out all sorts of confrontational remarks intended to offend liberals and get them to reply. If successful, the thread is moved from the main topic to Eric’s standard anti-liberal tirades.
Don’t let him win. Stick to the topic.
As a result of our military efforts, the healthcare of Iraqi children has been significantly degraded.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:48 pmAs a result of our military efforts, the healthcare of Iraqi children has been significantly degraded.
Comment by Vinnie
Of course, these f*ckers dont work to make people´s lives better, not Iraqi not American (sic). These f*ckers work for companies, even literally, and the bottomline is profit. Every single piece of evidence shows this is true. But we kept on fighting on which religion is better, or race issues, etc…but nobody in the media, ever talks about the profits that oil and war companies all over the world, not just in the US, are making.
Collateral damage…thats what children are for these people.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:54 pmHey Tobey, we are issued candy to form a human shield? I must have missed that briefing… That’s the most asinine thing I’ve read today.
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:02 pmMRE’s have always had a candy/dessert into them. GI’s tend to give it out to children to try and (gasp) be nice.
Hil,
You are being, to use Zooey’s term, intellectually dishonest. Yes, the report talks about events since the invasion. But the bulk of the report is dedicated to the period from 1990 to 2005. Thus, as I said, any attempt to spin this report as purely an anti-Bush (who, by way of reminder, did not take office until Jan. 2001) docuement does not pass muster. You are very conveniently disregarding all the years prior to March 2003.
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:25 pmComment by Craig Mack — May 23, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
Regardless of your intent, the outcome of the strategy is the same. You make it known that you have candy and toys for the taking…as a result, children flock to you, forming a shield.
You may not deliberately intend this effect…your immediate superiors might even not…but you can’t dent the effect. If you really wanted to be ‘nice’ to the children, you’d drop your candy and toys in a pile and walk away, so as not to needlessly endanger any of them.
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:32 pma number of iraqi parents must’ve found the post-2003 situation bad enough to leave their homes:
“UNICEF says since the start of the war in March 2003, nearly 15% of Iraq’s total population has fled their homes. About 2.2 million Iraqis have fled to neighboring countries”
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:41 pmOh damn, Trip, my bad. I must have been mistaken when we built the school my last time there….I was endangering them. Or when we spent about 3 weeks of 14 hour days working on the sewage and sump pumps that hadn’t ran in years……I was endagering them. Or, maybe when we swept and cleared the local soccer pitch for IEDs….was I still endangering them.
May 23rd, 2007 at 3:26 pmOr, just maybe, it could be the snipers that shoot at a patrol FROM WITHIN A CROWD OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN! Are they endangering them, or are they merely “freedom fighters”, and their tactics are justifiable?
Trust me, the last thing anyone on patrol wants is to bring further attention to themselves, or to bring children in to the equation. And trust me, I don’t want to be there any more than some of you want us there, but that’s the nature of things.
Bottom line is that your stament was deplorable at best, whatever your reasoning may be. Say whatever you want about policies and administration, you have that right. However, leave me and mine out of this!
Comment by Craig Mack — May 23, 2007 @ 3:26 pm
WTF??? How did this become about schools, sump pumps, and soccer pitches, Craig?
You’re trying to change the subject with emotionally charged images. It’s a pretty shameful tactic, and you’d do better to avoid it.
There was nothing whatsoever “deplorable” about my statement, Craig. It was a simple statement of fact. I don’t know what your motivations are in giving children candy and toys, and, frankly, I don’t give a shit. That’s a topic for another discussion. Your righteous indignation may belong on that discussion, but it has no place here.
Whatever your motivations are, the outcome is the same. Children flock to U.S. soldiers. It’s a damned shame you don’t seem to understand the hazard you’re creating for these children.
While I understand your point about the snipers, and agree fully, it only serves to certify my argument. If it’s immoral for the enemy to surround themselves with civilians, how exactly is it moral for you to do so?
Please notice that throughout all my posts I have not accused “you or yours” of deliberately creating this effect. I would prefer to believe that our brave men and women in uniform are not as amoral and soulless as our political leaders. However, as I stated earlier, the intention is beside the point.
May 23rd, 2007 at 3:59 pmTrip, I apologize if it seems mine was an emotionally charged diatribe. In truth, I was responding more to the posting of Tobey Tall than yours. The way he made it sound, we WANT the children around us, which is not the case at all. In fact, we try and throw the stuff towards them whenever possible. The anxiety level of everyone goes through the roof when a crowd of kids gathers around you, because it’s even harder to keep an eye out for snipers.
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:06 pmMy point to you (and we could go on until both our fingers went numb) Is that none of us are trying to endanger any children. It’s not as if we go door-to-door asking them to come out.
As far as my indignation, when a post suggest that we do this strictly to protect ourselves, I’ll bring it every time. You can call it what you will.