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| Iraq | |
| More Iraqis Starving Now Than When Saddam Ruled | |
| 2007-07-30 | |
| About 8 million Iraqis — nearly a third of the population — need immediate emergency aid because of the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, relief agencies "Basic services, ruined by years of war and sanctions, cannot meet the needs of the Iraqi people," said Jeremy Hobbs, the director of Oxfam International. "Millions of Iraqis have been forced to flee the violence, either to another part of Iraq or abroad. Many of those are living in dire poverty." The report said more than 2 million people — mostly women and children — have been displaced within Iraq, and 2 million Iraqis have fled the country as refugees, mostly to neighboring Syria and Jordan. Hobbs urged Iraq's government, the United Nations and the international community to do more to help Iraqis, despite the risk of the war's widespread violence involving coalition forces and insurgents. "The Iraqi government must commit to helping Iraq's poorest citizens, including the internally displaced, by extending food parcel distribution and cash payments to the vulnerable. Western donors must work through Iraqi and international aid organizations and develop more flexible systems to ensure these organizations operate effectively and efficiently," Hobbs said.
I haven't worked there at all, yet I'm sure the various agencies could do some more good, if they only had a lot more money. Some humanitarian organizations refuse money from governments with troops in Iraq, on the grounds of security and independence. Let 'em starve. We have principles, ya know! "The fighting and weak Iraqi institutions mean there are severe limits on what humanitarian work can be carried out. Nevertheless, more can and should be done to help the Iraqi people," Hobbs said. But not Oxfam. Too dangerous, doncha know. | |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #14 This seems beyond dubious. Economic activity in Iraq is quite good, it's an associative culture with integration of families that makes malnutrition less likely, and food is plentiful and cheap. My time over there and my years in the food aid biz leave me extremely skeptical on this. Our collective experience of the unreliability of "aid" groups, especially in the last few years, especially on anything connected to Iraq, leave us with almost no basis to take this seriously. Aside from this, 100% of the problem is attributable to the activities of foreign terrorists, Sunni chauvinists, Shi'a gangs, criminals, and their foreign backers. Imagine Oxfam or any other such outfit calling on these thugs to desist. Yeah, I didn't think you could. |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2007-07-30 14:28 |
| #13 Is the author, Thomas Wagner, one of those who so often cited the Iraqi police Captain, Jamil Hussein? Ya know, the source for over 60 articles the AP never could produce? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-07-30 13:46 |
| #12 and when the democrats take the presidency the united states will absorb all of these refugees. soon after they will be the source of further terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. |
| Posted by: Squinty Shaviting7720 2007-07-30 13:04 |
| #11 By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer LONDON Any guesses who Mr. Wagner's stringers are associated with? The ones he knows are trustworthy because he's been working with them since '02, dontchaknow. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-07-30 12:51 |
| #10 Those starving Iraqis should be grateful that they're not being fed into shredders, tortured in jail cells or having their daughters raped for kicks by Qusai and Uday. When the Iraqi people begin offing the terrorists amongst them and put an end to the endless internecine struggle that is destabilizing their country, maybe then I'll have some sympathy. So long as they perpetuate the usual craptacular inter-tribal festivities, they can starve. These handwringing relief agencies can go screw themselves. I'd love to see what percentage of their donations actually makes it to the needy. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-07-30 11:54 |
| #9 One thing I've noticed from photographs is that there are live Iraqis and dead Iraqis, but there are no thin Iraqis. When the Nick Berg decapitation snuff movie was first made public and revealed to the world the islamic fondness for beheading prisoners (not that this was a novelty, decapitations of civilians or prisoners were common during the algerian "independence" war, or during the same 90's civil war), I remember there were "troothers" who "debunked" the video and claimed the perps were actually US soldiers in disguise, doing Black Ops™ for blaming poor jihadis... and one of the main clues that left them persuaded those masked men were not iraqis but americans, was that they looked well-fed and even on the plump/overweight side... That's because, it's a well-known fact that the average Us solider is out of shape and a lard ass, while the average jihadis is a rail-thin poor malnurished brown people, just like zarqawi, heh. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2007-07-30 11:11 |
| #8 Probably a link with the folks that brought us the "600,000 Iraqi civilians killed" story. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-07-30 10:47 |
| #7 Interesting, in that this year, Iraq is expected to have an all-time bumper crop of produce from its farms, slashing food prices. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-07-30 10:33 |
| #6 More liberal spin for more tax dollars. Nothing to see here. Please move along. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-07-30 10:01 |
| #5 Thess situations will, of couse, miraculously disappear if and when a Democrat is elected president. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-07-30 09:55 |
| #4 Funny, I heard a report on NPR this morning about all the starvation in Afghanistan. Coincidence? I think not. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-07-30 09:17 |
| #3 In fact, if you look at the photo at the link, you'll see plump Iraqis in line for humanitarian aid. These aid agencies are a merely a conduit for funneling donor funds to well-fed people in the countries of the aid agencies' choice. This is why well-fed Iraqis and not starving Sudanese or Congolese are being fed. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2007-07-30 09:08 |
| #2 One thing I've noticed from photographs is that there are live Iraqis and dead Iraqis, but there are no thin Iraqis. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2007-07-30 09:05 |
| #1 According to the "agencies" that keep these statistics, there are "22 children starving in my street" even though only 5 children live on my street... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2007-07-30 09:01 |