The war against Iraqi children

An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer (June 2, 2005) describes how, "More than two years after the start of the war in Iraq, children continue to be its main victims."

Written by César Chelala, an international health consultant, the article describes the disastrous consequences of our invasion and continuing occupation of Iraq, which have followed on from 13 years of genocidal U.N. sanctions. So, for example:

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. On the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Index, the country has fallen from 96 to 127, one of the most dramatic declines in human welfare in recent history.

The article goes on to describe:

According to one estimate, 60 percent of rural residents and 20 percent of urban dwellers have access only to contaminated water. In the hardest hit regions, more than 70 percent of primary-school buildings lack potable water. (According to World Bank statistics, 25 percent of primary school-age children in Iraq do not go to school. Ministry of Education statistics state that 80 percent of the schools need repair and 9 percent are in need of demolition.)

Any remaining pretences about our invasion of Iraq having been about "liberation" and rescuing the Iraqis from the clutches of Saddam Hussein must surely now be completely forgotten. The attack was--and still is--a simple act of premeditated mass-murder. And the main victims, rather than being evil 'bad guys,' are children. As Chelala concludes in his article: "Adults play their perverse war games, and children suffer. This is a severe indictment of any war - and of those who orchestrate war without assessing its potential consequences on the most vulnerable of civilian populations."

The full article is available here.