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Saturday, February 08, 2003While the world stands poised at the precipice of a war on Iraq, roughly 13 million already-vulnerable Iraqi children face "grave risk of starvation, disease, death, and psychological trauma", a blue-ribbon panel of humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) says. In the event of war, the likely outcome will be a humanitarian "disaster" in which casualties among children could reach the hundreds of thousands, a ten-member team of health researchers, psychologists, and children's rights activists warned on Jan 30. ...The report argues that young Iraqis are now particularly imperiled because of a weakened health system ensuing from the ongoing deterioration of the nation's social infrastructure, including its health-care, water, sanitation, and food supply systems. As a consequence, "the population is far less prepared, physically and emotionally, to withstand a war than they were the last time around" Sounds like they need to be liberated. These are the same people, by the way, who made the same dire predictions about Afghanistan, where war brought tetanus immunizations, measles immunizations, and and rebuilding of the medical infrastructure. Then there’s this poignant observation: The researchers also found a "startling" level of psychological harm among Iraqi children as a result of the threat of war. A survey of 85 families and questionnaires collected from 232 schoolchildren indicates that youths are already "fearful, anxious, and depressed. Many have nightmares. And 40% do not think that life is worth living." Evidently, the NGO's haven't entertained the thought that living under a totalitarian regime might also make one feel this way. posted by Sydney on 2/08/2003 08:21:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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