Growing Health Horrors In War-Torn Iraq

By James Donahue

Reports of severe health problems are beginning to leak out of the war-ravaged nation of Iraq as fighting and suicide bombings continue to make life unbearable for not only U. S. troops, but the Iraqi people.

Dr. Patricia Doyle, in recent remarks published on the Rense website, said people there “are developing cancers as well as birth defects of newborns due to depleted uranium.”

She said these weapons are posing a danger not only to the Iraqis, but to people at home because the bombs and bullets are being manufactured in U. S. plants.

“People live near the factories and the DU (depleted uranium) products are trucked and railed across the U.S. Pollution from the factories can seep into water tables and pollute the air,” Doyle wrote.

In addition to this, she warned that none of the water in Iraq is safe. “Sewage treatment plants are not on line and the water contains viruses and bacteria. Part of the problem is the fact that Iraq still does not have uninterrupted electricity.”

Not only this, but other diseases are beginning to appear. The New York Times reports that a virulent form of Hepatitis E has broken out in Sadr City and Mahmudiya, two cities where fighting and killing has been taking a toll. The disease is usually caused by a virus spread by sewage-contaminated drinking water. Over 200 cases are known as of this writing.

A BBC story said the incidence of disease like cholera, dysentery and typhoid is rising across Iraq, according to UNICEF. The writer said because of imposed sanctions on the country, an estimated million Iraqi children were considered malnourished because of diarrhea.

Manzoor Ghori, a member of a group known as American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice, wrote that he recently visited Iraq and was shocked by what he saw.

Ghori wrote: “My first visit to a children’s hospital in Baghdad – 340 beds, housing over 1,200 children – left me drained and speechless with sorrow at the condition of the innocent children who were being punished merely for being citizens of Iraq.

“There lie hundreds of children crowded, three or four to a bad, on plastic coverings soiled by urine and vomit, surrounded by flies and their anxious parents. There, I witnessed sights that I could have only imagined in my worst nightmares.”

What have we done?