by Robert Jensen

Fort Worth Star Telegram

12/08/04

The United States has lost the war in Iraq, and that's a good thing. I don't mean that the loss of American and Iraqi lives is to be celebrated. The death and destruction are numbingly tragic, and the
suffering in Iraq is hard for most of us in the United States to comprehend. The tragedy is compounded because these deaths haven't protected Americans or brought freedom to Iraqis. They have come in the quest to extend the American empire in this 'new American century.' So, as a U.S. citizen, I welcome the U.S. defeat for a simple reason: It isn't the defeat of the United States -- its people or their ideals -- but of that empire. And it's essential that the American empire be defeated and dismantled...

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/10366618.htm?1c


Information from RRND

Rape a Deliberate War Strategy; Violence 'Must Stop' Amnesty Report Says

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1208-06.htm

The United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, warned today that the number of young Iraqi children suffering from acute malnutrition has nearly doubled since the March 2003 invasion, as health and living conditions have deteriorated. Almost eight per cent of Iraqi children younger than five suffer from chronic diarrhoea and protein deficiency, the agency's latest reports said. "This means that hundreds of thousands of children are today suffering the severe effects of diarrhoea and nutrient deficiencies," UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy said. Diarrhoea, caused mainly by unsafe water and in some areas lack of clean supplies, is responsible for 70 per cent of child deaths in Iraq, the agency said. Water treatment plants, already in poor condition, have suffered more damage since the invasion. In Baghdad, 40 per cent of the water system has been damaged, with water lines either broken or contaminated. Sewage treatment plants no longer work because of problems with the electrical supply, poor maintenance, and damage caused since the invasion.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/12/06/1102182194844.html?oneclick=true


From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - December 8th, 2004