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Casualties of War: The Children of Iraq

Posted on May 24, 2007
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By Kenneth J. Theisen, 5/23/07

Regular readers of this site are well aware of the death and
destruction that the U.S.
invasion of that country has brought to the people of Iraq. But today I want to write
about what the U.S. occupation
means to the children of Iraq.
Yes, children die in bombings, caught in the cross-fire, and other direct acts
of violence. These deaths are deplorable and most of us know of them. But many
more children die because of lack of affordable health care, access to potable
water, malnutrition, preventable diseases and other causes that kill one out of
eight children before the age of five in Iraq. These deaths are just as much a
direct result of the war as those killed in more violent ways.  And the U.S.
as the occupying power is just as responsible for these deaths as they are when
so-called U.S.
smart bombs rain down on children.

According to a recent report released by Save the Children,
between the first Gulf War in 1990 and 2005, the mortality rate for children
under age five rose 150 percent in Iraq.  Some other saddening statistics – In 2005,
the last year in which data is available according to the report, 122,000 Iraqi
children died before age 5. This is a rate of 125 per 1,000 children. In contrast,
the U.S.
the rate is only 7 per 1,000. A quarter of the children suffering from
suspected pneumonia are not seen by health care providers because the parents
can not afford to pay. Nearly half of children under 5 with diarrhea are not
given oral re-hydration treatment. More than a fifth of all Iraqi children
suffer from severely or moderately stunted growth. Only about a third of
children are fully immunized against preventable diseases. Over a quarter of
births occur with no health care provider in attendance.  The infant mortality rate has increased 37
percent in the last four years of the war.

Part of the reason for the increased deaths of children is
because the medical care system in Iraq
has greatly declined since the U.S.
invasions. Iraq used to
pride itself on the best medical services in the Middle
East. But in many clinics and hospitals operating medical
equipment and even basic medical supplies are often non-existent or in short
supply. Electricity is on for only a few hours per day in many places. Even anesthetics
often run out and operations take place without them. And doctors are literally
running out too. The Iraqi Medical Association recently estimated that at least
one-third of Iraq’s
40,000 doctors have fled the country. Each day the Medical Association issues
between 30 and 50 “certificates of good standing” to Iraqi
physicians.  These forms are needed for
doctors to work abroad.

Other common killers of Iraqi children are preventable
illnesses and diseases due to the lack of drinkable water and access to a
workable sewage system. According to the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources,
only 32 percent of the Iraqi population has access to clean drinking water, and
only 19 percent has access to a good sewage system. Children are forced to bathe
in polluted water and other must drink it too. Malaria and diarrhea are common
killers as a result.

Many of the deaths of children could be prevented for a few
dollars a day per child. But even though the Bush regime has literally spent
hundreds-of-billions of dollars in Iraq destroying the country and its
people, it has allocated very little to preventing the deaths of children. But
then despite all the political rhetoric, the invasion of Iraq has had
nothing to do with making life for Iraqis better.  The deaths of hundreds-of-thousands of
children are stark testimony to what the U.S.
has brought to Iraq.
These deaths will continue as long as the Bush regime continues to occupy Iraq and the
White House.

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