Impending Doom - Projections of the Ecological Impact of "Ir

[praxis1966]

Based on studies done after the last Persian Gulf conflict, Ross Mirkarimi projects that the environmental reprecussions of the most recent American invasion will be immeasurable and dire.

Read More (http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2003/16/we_351_01.html)

[ChiTown Lady]

Here is the text from praxis1966 link. I am posting this in case it took as long for any of you as it did me, for this link to come up.

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/colu.../we_351_01.html (http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2003/16/we_351_01.html)

A Ravaged Land

Devastated by war and isolation, Iraq now faces a humanitarian and environmental crisis 12 years in the making.

Ross Mirkarimi
April 14, 2003

We could see that Iraq was beautiful. In the brilliant sunshine, its blend of earth-toned ancient streets, bustling maze of market squares, rows of white modern buildings and timeless customs gave it a vibrant spirit. But everything was infected by war. As we neared Karbala, shell-shattered homes and buildings dotted the frontage road. I saw the residue of one outlying village that had been split in half by an errant bomb. Most of the people were gone, except a few elderly, sitting in the ruins of their homes, cooking on open fires between broken walls.

It was 1991, and the Gulf War's aftermath was hard to escape. Families who once had indoor water were bathing and drinking water from a single source, the Euphrates. Sewage was everywhere. Water treatment and sanitation facilities were shut down or barely worked intermittently. The river that once gave life to Iraq was transformed into a river of death. What the United States-led forces left standing, civil unrest and United Nations' sanctions were finishing off.

Military historians praised the 1991 war for its brevity, and the same praise is being heard today, as US and British troops roll through Iraq. But the cessation of hostilities 12 years ago failed to halt the ferocious onslaught against Iraq's environmental health. The devastation resulting from the Persian Gulf War transformed Iraq into a living laboratory. With the assistance of the UN embargo, Iraq has been subjected to 12 years of unprecedented and latent suffering.

We were in Iraq as part of a nonpartisan public health-science team organized by Harvard University, non-governmental organizations and the government of Jordan. The team, the first to detail the comprehensive damage to Iraq's populace and environment, established the baseline methodology that is still used today by international relief organizations in assessing infant mortality, economic stability, environmental health and the psychological impacts of war on women and children. The team's findings were reported worldwide. The study was scientific. The toll was horrific.

Surgical strikes lacked precision, and the aftermath of combat exceeded US Department of Defense collateral damage reports to the infrastructure that nurtured civilian life. (The UN was supposed to convene a special session in late 1991 to receive our report, but under Security Council protocol, any permanent member nation was allowed to reject such a hearing. One vote from the United States aborted our presentation. Despite fanfare abroad, our study team's data proved academic here at home.)

What should have been national headlines is that after the war, the Iraqi region was transformed into an ecological disaster zone. The international community marshaled the resources to extinguish the grisly effects of the oil well fires and oil spills, but a cold war with Saddam claimed new casualties -- the neglect of Iraq's environment and civilian populace. Surpassing 800,000 by 2002, far more Iraqi civilians, especially children, died from the lingering consequences of the first Gulf War than in the war itself. In pre-Gulf war Iraq, the mortality rate of children under five years old was 27 per 1000. Now, according to UNICEF, it has soared approximately eight-fold.

The decline of public health standards resulting from the patch-work repairs made to Iraq's serpentine rural and urban sanitation and water purification systems led to maladies ranging from severe dehydration to cholera and typhoid. Now, even those shoddy repairs are failing under the onslaught of US and British forces. Water shortages are being reported in Basra, Baghdad, Nasiriya, and other cities, and the threat of widespread urban epidemics is rising rapidly.

Indeed, water contamination is the most immediate threat facing Iraq and, by extension, the entire region. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are Iraq's only significant sources of fresh water. They also furnish water to Iran, Kuwait, Turkey, and Syria. The situation in Basra, where half of the city's 1.2 million residents are still without fresh water or adequate sanitation, could be a precursor for the rest of Iraq.

Like his father before him, when President Bush speaks of Iraqi liberation by removing Saddam Hussein, he implies a linear solution to the restoration of Iraq's health and welfare. But, like the bodies of people mangled by cluster bombs and toxic debris, the land and peoples of Iraq will not readily recover from the wounds that the combatants have inflicted, even when peace is achieved.

Conventional attitudes assume that the altered chemistry of a river or desert eco-system, the chromosome damage to a newborn infant or the shattered economy of an embargoed nation do not affect each other. If we look at all these disparate disasters as part of a whole, however, it becomes clear that the combined actions of all belligerent parties have gone far in destroying the natural environment in which the Iraqi people live. Once a modern nation, Iraq is now a country of waterborne disease, imperiled flora and fauna, contaminated ecosystems, eroded soil and decimated livestock.

Before the Gulf War, Iraq was able to produce 30 to 35 percent of the food needed by its entire population, importing the rest. A decade of conflict has changed all that. Soil erosion has accelerated, desert vegetation has been destroyed, and plots of dormant seeds have been disrupted. All indications suggest that Iraq's 2003 harvest has been effectively destroyed. The World Food Program projects it will cost $1.3 billion to distribute food to Iraq in the coming six months.

While ostensibly less urgent, there is an immediate need to recover the massive amounts of highly toxic materials that are used by US and British forces to maintain and operate their tanks, jet fighters and other pieces of equipment. Exposure to even trace amounts of these chemicals through drinking, skin absorption or inhalation can cause cancer and birth defects, and impair the function of the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system. Due to inhospitable sandstorms, US troops have been forced to use larger amounts of hazardous materials than in more moderate climates.

Another question surrounds the use of depleted uranium, a waste product of nuclear weapon and reactor use that is used in combat as a more effective armor-penetrating round. Thousands of depleted uranium rounds peppered the former combat zones in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the war in Kosovo. The long-term health effects, according to a 1999 analysis from the Physicians for Social Responsibility must be examined; Army technicians who coordinated a partial clean-up of the depleted uranium in Kuwait have disproportionately become seriously ill or have died, and sharp increases in cases of leukemia, lymphomas and birth defects were found among returning refugees in Kosovo and the Persian Gulf who have come into contact with military debris contaminated by depleted uranium.

The US General Accounting Office estimates that American forces used approximately one million rounds of depleted uranium during the 1991 Gulf War and 10,000 rounds during the Kosovo conflict. The projected use during the war in Iraq is expected to exceed several million rounds.

Hasn't the time come for the world community to create a stronger convention for the protection of the environment in war? What do you think?

Ross Mirkarimi, who works for the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, coordinated the environmental impact investigation in Iraq with the Harvard International Study Team in 1991. He returned to Iraq on a follow-up mission with another environmental-public health alliance.

[ChiTown Lady]

The US Leaders and the supporters and advocates of these atrocities will be dealt with in the end.

There WILL be a Judgment Day.

Allah/God will be with those who are true and just.

But it is also true that we should all be praying for those who are currently being oppressed and those on the future agenda of the Imperialist Oppressors.

I don’t want to hear that you don’t believe in God/Allah!

Maybe this is specifically part of the problem!!!

Could it be possible that we are not being heard, simply because not enough of us are asking for divine intervention for the cause of the people against the Imperialist Demon (who is clearly being sponsored and influenced by the Dark Side)?

And don’t even try to pose the argument that if there were a God he would not allow this sort of thing to happen. The fact is that there are two very real forces in combat here – that of good and evil, and we are the parties to make the choice – we are the people to make the difference depending on what we choose and how we handle that choice.

Oh, enough of that – I think you get my meaning.

I know that my voice alone will NOT make the difference, yet I choose to continue to voice the truth and pray for those who are being victimized by the Imperialist Demons. This is my personal choice – I hope you will all join me.

[praxis1966]

While I agree with your sentiment Chitown, I do not believe that it would behoove us to us the same sort of rhetoric that the imperialist dogs do. In order to win over "hearts and minds" we must maintain a moral high ground. As Elijah Muhammed once proposed to Brother Minister Malcom X:

If you give the people a glass of water, darkened by impurities and tainted with filth, they will drink it; if they are thirsty.

But, if you instead place a glass of water in front of them, clear and fresh and safe from toxins, they will naturally choose the clean glass before the dirty one.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

In order to unify the people, why would we want to use religion. Religion works against the unification of the proletariat, it subjugates people and represses, I frankly don't think that religion would do the left much good. Though it is appealing to the simple mind, we must not resort to illegitimate tricks to win the hearts and minds of our potemtial followers.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

Onto then subject of post-war filth. I think that it's something that needs to be brought to the minds of Americans. Maybe then, they will realize their "superior" war tactics and "smart" missiles and "humanitarian" efforts were all a big scam to earn their support. Perhaps they'll realizing that the people who they just "liberated" are bathing and drinking from sewage in immensly inadequate conditions. They may even be witty enough to note the fact that once we enstate a new "democratic" government, which will represent the voice of Iraqis (ie: oil companies), the filth, poverty, and ruins will not be eliminated as they should, for reasons of greed and lack of profit from such actions [like restoring pumbing, restoring the cities, etc.].

[canikickit]

I don’t want to hear that you don’t believe in God/Allah!

I don’t believe in God/Allah!

I found your post to be offensive. Was it supposed to be a parody of Bush, or what?

I think it is entirly simplistic to call "this" a battle between good and evil.
There won't be a judgement day, and I think that if there was a God he would side with the winners.

It's completely illogical.

[Donut Master]

Health of the enviroment is one of the many casualties of war, though I think the loss of human life is a far greater concern.

I don't believe in God or Allah either, and I agree with canikickit - you are using the same rhetoric as the Americans when you call this a battle between "good and evil". Wake up, there is no good or evil. It's never in black and white like that, such a narrow mindset will doom you to ignorance!

I'm not going to argue with you the existence of a divine power, but I will recommend that you stop waiting around for some kind of heavenly intervention. Don't just kneel down and pray, get out there and make a difference! Humans have amazing power by themselves, you certinaly don't need help from any gods.

[Umoja]

Actually it is a matter of black people vs. white people, don't you see. Look at our war record! Black people are dying to quickly. Break the chains of slavery! Freedom before peace! Uhuru kwa Watu Weusi!

[sin miedo]

Kill whitey!

And yeah, making this into a good versus evil thing is doing the exact same thing the imperialists are doing. The world is not black and white, it is different shades of grey.

[Zombie]

Quote: from canikickit on 5:16 pm on April 27, 2003

I don’t believe in God/Allah!

I found your post to be offensive. Was it supposed to be a parody of Bush, or what?

I think it is entirly simplistic to call "this" a battle between good and evil.
There won't be a judgement day, and I think that if there was a God he would side with the winners.

It's completely illogical.


Agreed.

[canikickit]

Quote: from sin miedo on 11:46 pm on April 27, 2003
The world is not black and white, it is different shades of grey.


My shade is better than your shade!


Agreed.

Damn straight.

[sin miedo]

At least my shade is cool in the summer.

[praxis1966]

Health of the enviroment is one of the many casualties of war, though I think the loss of human life is a far greater concern.That's the whole point. By destroying the environment in Iraq with radioactive and chemical pollutants, the U$ is acting toward the detriment of the people there (i.e. infertile soil+non-potable water=no eaty, no drinky). I thought that was understood.

[ChiTown Lady]

I was not talking about anything in a rhetorical sense (like the imperialist dogs do), and I have to admit that I can appreciate the sentiments that say Religion works against the unification of the ultimate cause. Religion can work against the cause simply because there are differing theories and beliefs in this Realm – I will agree with this.

My intent was NOT to offend anybody with the fact that I personally am of the Christian belief. And I certainly was NOT intending to speak in parody of Bush! I find the suggestion of that statement about me particularly offensive. How dare anyone suggest that I am down with anything he has to say EVER – I find him the single most hypocritical and nauseating thing on the face of the planet. Do not put me in the same light as this sub-human piece of shit – please.

I am NOT simply kneeling down and praying for divine intervention. Of course I get out there and do my part to make a difference, and I hope you are all doing the same.

I see a bit of racism in some of these replies. Is that right? This is not a case of black people vs. white people, and to suggest it is blocking out those who are down with the cause and are also white of complexion. This is specifically not fair to those of us who are fighting so hard for what is right and are also not brown or black. How can any of you who are brown or black of complexion justify treating people in the same say as you yourself have objected to having been treated? I mean by harboring hate for people simply because of their color – hating people because they are white is also as wrong as hating people for being black or brown. Please don’t go there. We “here” specifically need to be color blind in this realm, or for sure we have no chance of making our cause into a reality.

I DO agree that the Imperialist and Colonialist governments have been victimizing poorer nations that have populations of brown and black skin – simply because they are poor and live on lands very rich in natural resources. This is a fact that cannot be ignored, however – and I personally believe that this is evil – in the sense of the meaning of the word evil, because it certainly is NOT a good thing. Is it? Don’t let Bush’s trickery of words taint your views of whether there is such a thing as good and evil. Of course there is – but his estimation is specifically the opposite of the truth regarding what is a good thing to be doing and what is evil.

Many of who object to this Imperialistic drive to dominate the masses happen to be white and Caucasian of race, and we need your support and acceptance. We’re down with the cause against the Imperialists. Don’t use the same rhetoric as the Imperialist hate-mongers by also hating us. I hope this is not what any of you are doing.

What I have seen in this post, ever since I said what I said – is specifically a lot of hate for anyone who happens to believe in God/Allah and/or who happens to be white of skin. How does this make you who believe this way any better than the warmongering and hate-mongering Fascists? This is my question to you who think this way about me or anyone who happens to resemble me.

You should know by now how I stand on the issues, if any of you have read any of my other postings here. I am not an Imperialist, racist, or anything of the sort. In fact I have always spoken out against this shit specifically. And I am also not rich – I live in a low-income getto neighborhood – which is probably a much less attractive place than many of you happen to live in.

We should not be speaking words of hate against each other here – and I’m sorry if I offended any of you by speaking about my personal beliefs regarding the Lord etc. This was not my intent. I just had to say it, because I am Christian, even if many of you aren’t. That’s cool too – I respect your believes and I would hope you will respect mine in the face of the higher cause, because the high cause is what really matters.

I have always been down with the cause against Imperialism and Colonialism. We do have a common ground and common front here – so how about we work with that inserted of fighting with eachother. Can we do that please?

On a scientific plain – I think that we can agree that these Depleted Uranium bombings and the destruction of the infrastructure of Iraq which has caused raw sewage to flood the streets is specifically harmful to the sustenance of life and humanity. I think we can all agree that this is a heinous crime against humanity, and that it will have repercussions for generations to come. In my personal estimation, anyone who isdown with that happening to people, or who would defend the actions that have caused it are evil and/or supporting the evildoers. This is what I believe about that, whether my beliefs about that offend any of you or not. I am totally against this shit, and will ALWAYS speak out against it no matter what - 'til the day I die.

[sin miedo]

We were just joking around with the whole race thing.

[praxis1966]

Chitown: I personally have no problem with your religious beliefs. I was simply attempting to forwarn you that the mention of the words God, Jesus, Muhammed, Buddha, whatever would cause exactly the reaction you just recieved here. I am personally very religious (a practicing Buddhist myself), but I choose not to mention it simply because I'm going to immediately offend people if I do. Besides, I don't want to be accused of using the same religious/emotional appeals that the King of Pigs (Bush) does. I'm sorry if I offended you in any way. And yes, I realize that you have the same revolutionary beliefs that the rest of us do.

BTW, I hope from now on we can all take a more even-keeled and rational approach to these issues. I would hate to think that anyone here made an enemy out of one who should be a friend.

[canikickit]

What I found offensive about your post was the pre-emptive strikes against discussion:


And don’t even try to pose the argument that if there were a God he would not allow this sort of thing to happen.

I don’t want to hear that you don’t believe in God/Allah!

Combined with all this bullshit about telling us to pray, and attempting to introduce guilt of some form, in this fashion:


Maybe this is specifically part of the problem!!!
Could it be possible that we are not being heard, simply because not enough of us are asking for divine intervention for the cause of the people against the Imperialist Demon (who is clearly being sponsored and influenced by the Dark Side)?

What I find completely illogical about this type of rhetoric, is that it is the same as Bush uses. The point being, he asks for divine intervention, he invokes God every speech he makes. I just don't see why God would be able to distinguish between the percieved "good and evil". People like Bush think they are doing good. Why is it not possible that God is on their side. Maybe He's on Osama's side. I don't care where he is.

It is not suggesting that you are on Bush's side if you use the same style rhetoric as him.

I don't know how you interpreted the remarks about race as serious, but rest assured, they were not.


I don't believe in this "not fighting with each other" line, if you disagree with what someone says, you should say so. I don't mean this to come across as hostile, because I've nothing against you, ChiTown Lady, I just wanted to let you know what exactly was offensive to me. It's not to do with the fact that you are of Christians belief.

[praxis1966]

I've only one question: Why is it that in every religion somewhere can be found the tenet "Thou shalt not kill" or something of the like, when it seems that the more religious zeale a person posesses the killing thing is "negotiable?"

And why is it that when some nation or people goes to war, they automatically assume God's on their side? Did anyone stop to think that maybe God's a little sick of all the so-called "divine justice" meted out by humans?

Just a thought...

[sin miedo]

It's because god is a heroin junkie and too busy shooting the juice to notice his creation fucking itself silly.

[praxis1966]

Aw c'mone, miedo. I love ya man, but that's just crass.

[sin miedo]

Hey, it's just an idea. I honestly don't believe in a god. If he did exist, I'd bet he'd be a bit loony, though. Just like sciencetists that absorb too much knowledge. Ya know? I'm sure a conversation with him would be out there, him rambling on about everything.

[ChiTown Lady]

Quote: from praxis1966 on 11:47 pm on April 28, 2003
I've only one question: Why is it that in every religion somewhere can be found the tenet "Thou shalt not kill" or something of the like, when it seems that the more religious zeale a person posesses the killing thing is "negotiable?"

And why is it that when some nation or people goes to war, they automatically assume God's on their side? Did anyone stop to think that maybe God's a little sick of all the so-called "divine justice" meted out by humans?

Just a thought...


This is the point I was trying to make with my original dissertation here. The very idea of using God as an excuse to commit mass murder and destruction when all of the major religions state that this is specifically against their teachings is ludicrous. They are trying to justify crimes against humanity based on the opposite of the doctrines that the religions they “supposedly” follow teach. It makes no sense.


It's because god is a heroin junkie and too busy shooting the juice to notice his creation fucking itself silly.

I think this is because those using God’s name in vain are on a power high and has nothing to do with the teachings of any religion or God being on any type of drugs. And I object vehemently to the fact that the power-mongering assholes are using religion as an excuse to commit heinous atrocities against humanity. But what I find more disturbing is the fact that so many sheeplike people out there are following this insane train of thought. This is what upsets me the most.

I am not going on another religious tangent here – really. I am just trying to point out how what Bush and his misguided followers are doing is infuriating me personally. They are pissin’ me off beyond any words I can type here, so I’ll just stop typing now.

[sin miedo]

I'm right there with you.