Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Democrats and Republicans Agree: Iraq Shall Suffer Occupation in Perpetuum

Kurt Nimmo | 21.11.2006 13:23 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | World

As it turns out, predictably so, the tussle between neocon Republicans and their kissing cousin neoliberal Democrat relatives is not about ending the “war” in Iraq but rather over how many brainwashed kids will be sent there to be shot up, killed and maimed, afflicted with “mysterious diseases” that translate into a “debilitating death sentence,” thanks to depleted uranium (see Soldiers Face Debilitating Diseases).

As it turns out, predictably so, the tussle between neocon Republicans and their kissing cousin neoliberal Democrat relatives is not about ending the “war” in Iraq but rather over how many brainwashed kids will be sent there to be shot up, killed and maimed, afflicted with “mysterious diseases” that translate into a “debilitating death sentence,” thanks to depleted uranium (see Soldiers Face Debilitating Diseases).

“[Incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer] said Democrats would continue funding the existing troop levels,” reports the Associated Press. “Our objective was to remove Saddam Hussein and create an environment in which a democracy could be established. That has been done.”

In Bushzarro world, a realm populated equally by Republicans and Democrats, in order for democracy to arise, a nation must be reduced from first to third world status. “Daily living conditions in Iraq are dismal, with families suffering from intermittent water and electricity supply, chronic malnutrition among children and more illiterate young than ever before, a new report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Iraqi Government shows,” reported the UN News Center last year. “Almost a quarter of the children between 6 months and 5 years suffer from chronic malnutrition. In a country where 39 per cent of the people are younger than 15, the young today are more illiterate than preceding generations. Young men with a high school education or better are suffering from 37 per cent unemployment.”

“Iraq boasted a modern social infrastructure with a first-class range of health-care facilities, and the Iraqi people enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the Middle East,” Ghali Hassan wrote a few weeks later. “In 1991, there were 1,800 health-care centers in Iraq. More than a decade later, that number is almost half, and almost a third of them require major rehabilitation. Iraq had used its oil revenues, which accounted for 60% of its gross domestic product (GDP), to build a modern health-care system with large Western-style hospitals and modern technology. Iraqi medical and nursing schools attracted students from throughout the Middle East, and many Iraqi doctors were trained in Europe or the U.S.A. Primary health-care services reached about 97% of the urban population and 78% of the rural population in 1990. But the Gulf war of 1991 and more than 13 years of U.S-Britain sponsored genocidal sanctions have left the country’s economy and infrastructure in ruins.”

In order for the Bushzarro version of democracy to work, not only are hospitals to be destroyed, but the decline in health must be irreversible. “The 2003 war not only created the conditions for further health decline, but also damaged the ability of Iraqi society to reverse it,” explains Gill Reeve, deputy director of Medact, the British-based charity organization. In order to realize freedom, large numbers of Iraqis must suffer from entirely preventable diarrhea and hepatitis. “Diarrhea killed two out of every 10 children before the 1991 Gulf War and four in 10 after the war,” Hassan continues. “The study indicates that only 54 per cent of households nationwide have access to a ’safe and stable’ supply of drinking water. An estimated 722,000 Iraqis, the report also notes, rely on sources that are both unreliable and unsafe.”

Democracy also requires insufficient electricity. “Although 98 per cent of Iraqi households are connected to the electrical grid, 78 per cent of them experience “severe instability” and low quality in the service, according to the survey. One in three Iraqi families now relies on electricity generators, most of which are shared between households. In all, daily living conditions under the Occupation have deteriorated markedly.”

According to Henry Kissinger, the mission was accomplished and, really, it is silly to stick around and attempt to achieve victory, whatever that is. “I think we have to redefine the course, but I don’t believe the alternative is between military victory, as it has been defined previously, and total withdrawal,” said Heinz. “If you mean by ‘military victory’ an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don’t believe that is possible.”

Kissinger wants a conference, of sorts, to hammer out a solution to the problems in the Middle East. “He called for an international conference bringing together the permanent members of the UN Security Council, Iraq’s neighbors—including Iran—and regional powers like India and Pakistan to work out a way forward for the region,” reports the Toronto Star.

Of course, merely chatting about “a way forward for the region” will accomplish nothing if the central issue is not addressed. And what is the central issue? It’s not Bushzarro democracy. It’s the Palestinian issue, left unresolved and festering for almost sixty years. “As a Lebanese-American, I know that Lebanon can never be free until Palestine is free. The same can be said of all the countries and nationalities in the region. So the Palestinian struggle is held important not only by Arabs, but by other Middle Eastern peoples as well,” notes Joyce Chediac. Even King Abdullah of Jordan, not exactly an advocate for the Palestinians, believes “that the Palestinian problem will remain Jordan’s central issue, adding that if it remains unsolved, the region will witness more violence and tension.”

Naturally, the Jabotinsky fanatics in Israel, that is to say nearly the entire political structure of the tiny outlaw nation, and their blood brothers infesting the White House and the Pentagon, will not address the central issue of the problem, not in a month of Sundays. Ditto the Democrats, beholden to AIPAC. For as David R. Obey, ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, has noted AIPAC has “pushed the Likud Party line and in the process has crowded out other voices in the Jewish community.” Indeed, it has pushed the process out of Congress entirely.

Kurt Nimmo
- Homepage: http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=661

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech