Life In Iraq (thanx so much Mr. Bush)

[aCiDPt]

25% of children under five years old are malnourished

real unemployment reaches a staggering 50% (a scarier prospect for most people than car bombs or snipers)

78% of the households in the country (and 92% in Baghdad) have electricity only a few hours a day

only 61% have access to safe drinking water

only 37% of urban households (and a mere 4% in the countryside) have sewage-disposal systems

5% of households have been destroyed by bombing or search-and-destroy missions,

only one in 10 households in rural areas can be reached by a paved road,

and more youngsters than in any previous generation are illiterate.

This is the appalling legacy of the occupation - and the US and UN-imposed regime of sanctions in the 1990s.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GF24Ak03.html
pls note that i do not support allot of assumptions in the article & the author is known to be slanted against bush but still pisses me off to read stats like that years after declaring victory against saddam

[sNyx]

BUSH = DEVIL! (well maybe not..)

There is still a war in progress. How can you bitch out Bush at the state of life when he is still in there trying to level these numbers off? I may not agree with what he has done, actually thats a whole new topic, the damage has been done and it has to be rectified.

You can't just turn off the fighting and hope everything works out. Quality of life won't start to heighten until the country has been liberated, even from Bush!

Perhaps things were better before, as they had many lifetimes to settle. Still the country was at complete flip flop. How can you have a very small very rich population and the overwhelming majority living it critical shambles? Sure the numbers might have been level, that doesn't mean it was better.

[ebbomega]

Seriously, things haven't been anywhere good for the middle east in well over a century. Bush is just the latest.

[aCiDPt]

There is still a war in progress. How can you bitch out Bush at the state of life when he is still in there trying to level these numbers off?

& who started that war needlessly for all the wrong reasons & still seems smug bout it?

iraq used to be one of the most prosperous & secular countries in the mid east. it was a shell of it's glory days after gulf war 1 but it was still least stable & most ppl had basic needs met. That is despite UN sanctions that punished mostly the common man & kids rather than saddam; sanctions which quite a few UN aid heads quit over in protest. despite that even back in the days just prior to guld war II iraq had 1 of the best food aid distribution programs in the world. & now with as much resources as the bush administration is claiming to be pumping into iraq i'd think they can least erase "25% of children under five years old are malnourished"!! other developmental problem caused by saddam & american foreign policy will take least decades to solve but hey u invade it u own it. so now make it all better mr bush.

[oddmud]

People, stop fronting like you actually know whats going on.

Iraq was a piece of shit before bush ever got in there. Yes he's a complete moron, and probably made it worse. BUT, it's always darkest before the dawn. Things did need changing, but the tactics that were used were wrong.

[crookedking]

i'm pretty sure i'm not the only person that just doesn't care.

[miss.myra]

Iraq was such a super place to live before the war too! Gooo oppresive regimes!

[aCiDPt]

wonder which is better for the common iraqi.... stable oppressive regime or active non-ending war of terror waged by ppl even less accountable than saddam?

[ebbomega]

I wonder that too.

Considering, you know, that the last oppressive government was put there by the States.

The next one will be too. And the one after that. And the one after that.

Seems to be what they're good at: Instilling oppressive regimes, arming them up to the teeth, and then laying the smackdown when those oppressive regimes try to use those arms.

Or, you know, in this case, because they're bored or something (WMDs whut?).

Love the Bill Hicks rant about how the States are like Clint Eastwood in an old western.... "You all saw him..... he had a gun...."

[miss.myra]

neither is necessarily worse or better, but it's fairly nonsensical to not see both sides of the picture in this case.

Usa bad, yes.

However.

Sadam's regime, also bad.

I feel that you failed to point that out.

Statistics for things like child malnutrition were more than likely around the same thresholds before the invasion occurred. It would make more sense if you said things haven't changed whatsoever, but I feel like the intent of posting this is to antagonize the USA making it look like all of these things are a freak occurrence that resulted from the invasion, which is not true.

[aCiDPt]

saddam's regime was bad yes; so much so that it is worth going wars over? worth the lifes of the soldiers on both sides who died over? worth the lifes of civilians who died over? worth the hardship & instability it brought to the iraqis over? worth making it a hornet's net & wrath of global muslim communitie's over?
is all that worth it cuz afew dogmatic ideologues prophesizes so in their minds & pen?

the statistics weren't solely caused by bush II but american foreign policy from the 70s on did contribute greatly to it. & since they did preach highly & mightily bout their intentions & abilities before the war how bout we wanting to see them deliver on most of them?

[mapleleaf4ever]

Originally Posted by aCiDPt

eal unemployment reaches a staggering 50% (a scarier prospect for most people than car bombs or snipers)

78% of the households in the country (and 92% in Baghdad) have electricity only a few hours a day

only 61% have access to safe drinking water

Hey, at least it's the majority! :p

[ebbomega]

All it goes to show is that a government really doesn't need a good excuse to go to war. Just the weapons.

[esoter1c]

It's Armagaeddon, get used to it.

[ebbomega]

Fact: Anybody claiming Armageddon upon us living in Vancouver is talking out of their ass.

[sNyx]

Originally Posted by aCiDPt

saddam's regime was bad yes; so much so that it is worth going wars over?

how else do you end a dictators rule? sending him fresh muffins and oranges at christmas isnt going to cut it. I agree most of what Bush did wasnt UN correct, still fuck he had the balls to get in there and take some action. Obviously the country is gunna suffer, hell it will for years to come. On the plus side, when this is all over, maybe Bush will shave some cents off the pumps when it's time to fillup.

[decypher]

I still don't agree with giving fundamentalist fanatics the majority rule in Iraq with their first election. The Regime should have been toppled from the bottom, not unilaterally by the states. The occupation coupled with actions taken in prison camps further degrade the US's global image which in turn furthers the popular militant ideal amoungst the large young muslim demographic.

There are obviously a lot of issues to consider. I think a better argument for Bush bashing is not his hasteful and messy occupation of Iraq, but his adminstrations sloppy unilateral initiatives and their cheap methods at gaining public approval. Not to mention his whole administration is based on crazy conservative evanagelicans who are backed by very well funded ,religious, partisan and lobbyist groups. They actually believe that present day happenings are a new age crusade against Islam. Just what we need in today's so called "evolved" civilization.

[maztraz]

Middle East Newsline | June 24, 2005
AFP | June 24, 2005
AFP | June 23, 2005
Al Jazeera | June 23, 2005

Wake up people they have been planing this for years, the actual reasons of the WAR in Middle East aren't exacly the cause of the regime in Middle East, it is more cause of the american regime&'whats behind it' that a part of what is happening in Middle EAst is happening, and more will happen if know one stops it, BUSH, or not BUSH its there....
Even tho he is part of it, he doesn't hold the biggest roll in all this....
He is just the cherry onto the bloody cake of current American Politic, and they are not scared to play with blinds minds.

[PHUNK]

its something that had to happen for the globaliztion of the world. get used to it. its going to happen to other countries too. there is nothing you or anyone can do about it.

if you wanna talk smack, talk about what the white man did to this land when he came to take it over. why aren't you writting this type of bullshit for the first nations people of these lands?? they had it a billion times worse then anyone else these days.

the middle east needs to be settle once and for all. if its not, people will be dying there for thousands of years to come. globalization is a good thing and needs to happen.

its all about the global gap.

[maztraz]

Originally Posted by PHUNK

its something that had to happen for the globaliztion of the world. get used to it. its going to happen to other countries too. there is nothing you or anyone can do about it.

if you wanna talk smack, talk about what the white man did to this land when he came to take it over. why aren't you writting this type of bullshit for the first nations people of these lands?? they had it a billion times worse then anyone else these days.

the middle east needs to be settle once and for all. if its not, people will be dying there for thousands of years to come. globalization is a good thing and needs to happen.

its all about the global gap.

WTF?????

That is 99,9% Negative

[esoter1c]

Originally Posted by ebbomega

Fact: Anybody claiming Armageddon upon us living in Vancouver is talking out of their ass.

There is a holy war going on, quit thinking you're safe in van putz.

In fact just stfu alltogether all you do is talk fag shit.

[sungoo]

This post seems very biased. Don't get me wrong, I disagree with a lot of America's foreign policies but it's not like Iraq was some utopia before the war. People were being slaugthered there, not to mention, Hussein was one sick sick man.
I do believe Hussein needed to be removed but at the same time, I wonder if war was really the way it needed to be. Then again, I wonder if there was any other reasonable method that Hussein could have been removed. I think if the US had waited a few months or even a few years, they could have gotten the full support of the UN, it could have possibly been a bit cleaner.
Either way, there are so many angles to go at this subject. So many mistakes from both sides.
This topic could get very messy because there are many mistakes made by either side but even those like myself who believe they should have waited for a better answer, even we're not free of innocence for everyday that would have passed, more iraqi's would have been oppressed and some even murdered.

We had gone to war, the iraqi people lost.
had we not gone to war, the iraqi people would still lose.
What a tragic state of affairs.

[PHUNK]

Originally Posted by maztraz

WTF?????

That is 99,9% Negative

no shit genius.

that's the point. closing the gap will mostly be negative at first, but after all is said and done, it will become a possitive force in order for the globe to move forward as one.

[Grapes]

No, he means 99.9% negative as in you're 99.9% out to lunch.

I gotta say, I disagree with him.. I think at least 5% of what you said holds true. The rest is utter nonsense.

[wum]

no white males no care