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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (164138)	3/15/2003 5:23:41 PM
From: hmaly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574854

Ted RE....What seems uncomprehensible is that you seem to have so much compassion for the butcher of Bagdhad, but can't seem to find it in your heart to feel compassion for the thousands dying each month from starvation, the gassed prisoners, and the millions of refugees. Of course, you have a link that provides the numbers to support your statement up above. Sure http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2001/08/23082001101624.asp The human rights group Amnesty International has released a report detailing what it calls the systematic torture of political prisoners in Iraq. The report says Baghdad uses torture to inflict "horrendous" suffering on those suspected of disloyalty to the regime. It also says security forces sometimes carry out spontaneous public executions of its enemies or their families to terrify witnesses into submission to the state. RFE/RL correspondent Charles Recknagel reports: state.gov guardian.co.uk Five years ago, a scientist who had worked at the Atomic Energy Organisation in Baghdad reported that weaponised chemicals and germs had been tested on Iraqi prisoners, mostly Kurds and Shias in Radwania jail in Baghdad. It was also reported that scientists at Salman Pak, a military complex 50 miles southwest of Baghdad, conducted experiments on Iranian prisoners of war. The claims were always denied by Iraq. iacenter.org Sanctions are war! They are the most brutal form of war because they punish an entire population, targeting children, the future, most of all. Sanctions are a weapon of mass destruction. From 1990, when sanctions were imposed on Iraq until 1995, half a million children under the age of five died of malnutrition and preventable diseases. Sanctions impose artificial famine. A third of Iraq's surviving children today have stunted growth and nutritional deficiencies that will deform their shortened lives. iacenter.org The first surveys since 1991 of child and maternal mortality in Iraq reveal that in the heavily-populated southern and central parts of the country, children under five are dying at more than twice the rate they were ten years ago. UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said the findings reveal an ongoing humanitarian emergency... The surveys reveal that in the south and center of Iraq -- home to 85 per cent of the country's population -- under-5 mortality more than doubled from 56 deaths per 1000 live births (1984-1989) to 131 deaths per 1000 live births (1994-1999). Likewise infant mortality -- defined as the death of children in their first year -- increased from 47 per 1000 live births to 108 per 1000 live births within the same time frame. The surveys indicate a maternal mortality ratio in the south and center of 294 deaths per 100,000 live births over the ten-year period 1989 to 1999. Ms. Bellamy noted that if the substantial reduction in child mortality throughout Iraq during the 1980s had continued through the 1990s, there would have been half a million fewer deaths of children under-five in the country as a whole during the eight year period 1991 to 1998." No comprehensive review of the humanitarian situation in Iraq has been conducted since 1999. A February 2002 Unicef survey of the nutritional status of under-fives in South/Centre Iraq found: "The deteriorating trend of malnutrition among under-five children seen throughout the 1990s has changed ... acute and general malnutrition are now less than half the levels of 1996, while chronic malnutrition has fallen by nearly 30% during the same period ... Despite gains, the present level of child malnutrition remains high compared to 1991 levels, which were already elevated after one year of sanctions." The report went on to explain that: "Many factors interact to affect the nutritional status of children ... For this reason, malnutrition is one of the most comprehensive indicators of the wellbeing of children, because it relies on the functioning of many sectors of society." The information available on the current humanitarian situation in Iraq tends to support the conclusion of a Unicef report on The Situation of Children in Iraq, also from February 2002, that: "the various arrangements put in place since 1996 to mitigate the impact of sanctions ... Overall, these efforts appear to have arrested the deterioration of the situation, but not to have greatly improved conditions for the majority of the population". There are so many reports like this on the web, that is hard to believe you are disputing them anymore. Sanctions appear to have imposed a real hardship on Iraq; or Saddam has used the sanctions as an excuse to starve millions; and blame the US. Only the cruel of heart would want to keep them going. But that is exactly what France, and the rest of the peaceniks want to do. Continue the controls until everyone is starving in Iraq; then blame the US, or blame GW, seems to be the liberals main aim. Have you read any of the recent reports on the state of Saddam's army? Why do you think D. Ray thinks it will be over in two weeks to a month? If it goes longer, its only because they are fighting on Iraqi turf and the cities are able to hold out. Which is why it would be more humane to have a short war, and get the sanctions lifted. didn't realize you were a compassionate conservative. I have a hard time telling you guys from the regular kind. And when the liberals stopped using compassion as a guide, that is when the liberals became a minority. think you need to address your comments to the author of that post, not me ????????