R J Adams -Musings And Meanderings
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In answer to a question from a member of the House of Commons in the British Parliament, Douglas Alexander, the Minister of State for International Development, told the House that with regard to the Iraqi health service:
“There were literally decades of under investment and mismanagement within the health system ..’ (under Saddam Hussein.)
The truth is that thirteen years of sanctions by the west, following the first Gulf War of 1991 and led by Britain and the USA, reduced the Iraqi health service to a shambles, causing severe shortages of drugs, syringes, and the parts necessary to repair vital machines. Thousands upon thousands of men, women, and children died because there was no way to treat them.
This was the misery our politicians inflicted on an innocent population in an attempt to force Saddam Hussein to heel. The misery was finally compounded in 2003 when those same countries invaded Iraq, magnifying the suffering of that populace to an even greater degree.
Douglas Alexander probably wasn’t too aware of the suffering his nation, and its bully-buddy, were inflicting on Iraq around that time. He was only twenty-four years old in 1991, and had spent a number of years at US Ivy League universities, and working for Michael Dukakis during the 1988 presidential election, returning to Britain as a speech writer for the man who is now Britain’s latest prime minister.
Apparently fond of his books, our Douglas returned to university to study law and graduated in 1993, whereupon he joined a firm of lawyers.
It’s easy, then, to understand why Douglas Alexander should be ready to blame Saddam Hussein, rather than his own nation’s politicians (at the time a Tory government led by John Major) for the state of Iraq’s health service.
Thankfully, some of us are more qualified to know the truth, and perhaps none more so than Felicity Arbuthnot, a freelance journalist who has spent long periods in Iraq and is an expert on the Iraqi health service.
She found Alexander’s remarks to be at odds with her own opinions, and wrote to him with the following observations:
“….The United Nations State of the Nations Report of 1989, recorded Iraq as having over ninety percent access to ‘free high quality health care’ (based on the British National Health Service, incidentally) and to clean water and an educational system so exemplary (free from kindergarten through university) that two years running, Iraq was awarded a special U.N., prize for its excellence. Hence the high qualifications of the country’s professionals. The medical profession was one aspired to especially, by students. On qualification, many were paid for, by the Iraqi government, to also undertake post-graduate studies in the West, thus benefiting from expertise in both Iraqi and Western practices. Many of the students came to Britain, who benefited greatly financially from the Iraqi government’s policy.
Thirteen years of the most draconian embargo ever imposed by the United Nations (driven by the US and UK) after the 1991 bombing, led to disaster in a country which had (on the advice, ironically,, of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization) imported – broadly – seventy percent of everything. The forty two day carpet bombing defied the 1977 Additional Protocols to the Geneva Convention, which states: It is prohibited to ‘ attack destroy or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population… including : foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations … irrigation works.’ All the former were about seventy percent destroyed. Water and irrigation facilities, were totally destroyed, at the behest of US Central Command………
…….. Iraq’s heath care system is not ‘ .. the result of decades of under investment and mis-management’, but of thirteen years of draconian sanctions and bombings, an illegal invasion and five years of further destruction and decimation. Given Britain’s pivotal role in the all, the country has a duty to right an appalling wrong. With a change of Prime Minister, [Gordon Brown] an electorate which has never been more cynical, which was promised a change of direction., Iraq will for ever be Labour’s nemesis. Such a policy of reparation on Iraq’s health care, might just win back a few British hearts and minds.[1]
These are excerpt’s from a long letter worthy of further perusal. It has been posted in full on the website of the Center for Research on Globalization, and the Iraqi site Gorilla’s Guides.
It is so easy to twist and alter the tales of history, whether by accident or design. It behooves all of us to ensure the stories that are eventually passed down to future generations are correct, and not deformed by those who would seek advantage from such manipulations.
Over the centuries, much of world history has been distorted beyond recognition. While it is taught in our schools today, mostly as unassailable fact, the majority is tainted and tinged by lies, exaggerations, and political convenience.
Douglas Alexander was guilty of just such ‘political convenience’ in the British House of Commons recently.
He, and his like, should not be allowed to get away with it.
[1] Public Health Crisis in Iraq – Felicity Arbuthnot, February 16th 2008.
(My thanks, as ever, to TOB for bringing the matter to my attention).
Filed under: Iraqi sanctions
It’s a term that’s used so frequently of late, the mind becomes irked by the lack of clarification. It’s not that it would be particularly interesting to know. In fact, it’s one of those boring questions you don’t really want to learn the answer to, yet feel that, well, if ‘they’ are going to keep using the term, ‘they’ really ought to answer it for us.
Who are these Superdelegates the media keeps ranting on about whenever the names Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are mentioned? And where do they come from?
Are they, perhaps, poised to fly in from some distant galaxy, form formation over Washington, and give us a fantastic aerobatic display in kinky, skin-tight, red and blue costumes with enormous capes?
Having finally cracked the mystery of their identify, I can say with sincerity that I absolutely hope not.
To avoid sickness, migraine, and even the possibility of suicidal tendencies, try to not imagine the following names (a mere smattering) dressed in the manner previously suggested: Janet Napolitano of Arizona; Nancy Pelosi; Dianne Feinstein of California; Henry Waxman; ex-President Jimmy Carter; Ted Kennedy; John Kerry…….no, you’re right, it’s not a pretty sight.
Thanks to TIME magazine, the whole, interminable list is set out on their website for us to yawn over.[1] Those mentioned above are the pick of the crop. Most, I’d never heard of, and I’ll bet you haven’t either. One gets the distinct impression, reading through the names, that “Superdelegates” are members of some exclusive club that no-one else would ever want to belong to.
None of them, to my knowledge, has ever been known to fly, do twirls in phone kiosks, or swing from New York skyscrapers on spiderweb. In fact, they all sound just as boring as I imagined they would be.
Still, if Obama and Clinton do finish their political Derby neck and neck, the “Superdelegates” will have the chance to do something really important – demolish any slight hope that these nomination races are in any way democratic.
With so many “Superdelegates” to choose from the corporate lobbyists must be having a field day.
Two prominent “Superdelegates” were omitted from the examples above: unsurprisingly, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Of course, in the best interests of gentlemanly politics, they’ll each vote for the other.
[1] List of the Democratic Superdelegates, TIME, The Page.
Filed under: Sleep aids