War is not healthy for children and other living things

Just in time for Christmas, UNICEF has released their preliminary findings from a report on the status of children in Iraq after nearly five years of warfare.

The findings are grim.

Two million children are threatened by disease, inadequate nutrition and inconsistent education. And making matters worse, children are frequently caught in the wars crossfire - literally.

“Iraqi children are paying far too high a price,” said Roger Wright, UNICEF’s Special Representative for Iraq. “While we have been providing as much assistance as possible, a new window of opportunity is opening, which should enable us to reach the most vulnerable with expanded, consistent support. We must act now.”

Among the problems highlighted in the report

• Only 28 per cent of Iraq’s 17 year olds sat their final exams in summer, and only 40 per cent of those sitting exams achieved a passing grade (in south and central Iraq).
• Many of 220,000 displaced children of primary school age had their education interrupted, adding to the estimated 760,000 children (17 per cent) already out of primary school in 2006.
• Children in remote and hard-to-reach areas were frequently cut off from health outreach services.
• Only 20 per cent outside Baghdad had working sewerage in their community, and access to safe water remains a serious issue.
• An average 25,000 children per month were displaced by violence or intimidation, their families seeking shelter in other parts of Iraq.
• By the end of the year, approximately 75,000 children had resorted to living in camps or temporary shelters (25 per cent of those newly-displaced since the Samarra shrine bombing in February 2006).
• Hundreds of children lost their lives or were injured by violence and many more had their main family wage-earner kidnapped or killed.
• Approximately 1,350 children were detained by military and police authorities, many for alleged security violations.

And still, against all odds and that reality - UNICEF and other aid organizations managed to deliver critical assistance even though they struggled under the yoke of the lowest funding levels since 2003.

Health care was delivered and house-to-house immunization campaigns were waged, protecting four million children from polio, and three million more from measles, mumps and rubella. Because of dedicated efforts like these, Iraq remains polio-free, and cases of measles dropped from over 9,000 in 2006 to just 156 in 2007.

Nearly five million children benefited from efforts to deliver educational services. Materials and textbooks were supplied, schools were rebuilt and restored, classrooms were added to existing structures to accommodate displaced children who were forced to relocate to flee violence and ethnic strife. (It is estimated that approximately 83% of Iraqi children of primary school age were in school in 2005-2006. The numbers for 2007 are currently in the crunching process.)

Shi'ite children in a refugee camp near Najaf
UNICEF has been instrumental in providing sanitation, hygiene and most importantly - clean, potable water to as many as 500,000 internally displaced refugees. Currently, at least 200,000 Iraqis only access to clean water is a UNICEF tankering project. These are the most desperate and destitute, living in tent cities that have sprung up, populated with people who fled the violence but had no where to go.

As security improves, a clearer picture of the needs of Iraqi children will emerge, but UNICEF stresses that the challenges will be amplified by repatriating families, who will be some of the most vulnerable citizens in need of help. Many have exhausted savings and are returning to homes that may or may not be standing, and if standing, they may be standing on an ethnic battleground.

To meet the coming challenges, UNICEF and its partners are spearheading IMPACT: Iraq. IMPACT: Iraq is an initiative that draws together a network of NGOs and UN teams to rapidly assess and respond when families are vulnerable. The intent is to facilitate local recovery, because strong families make strong communities.

To help seize the current opportunity, UNICEF calls for support to:

1. rapidly increase attention and action to meet the immediate needs of children and families inside Iraq - focusing on all vulnerable groups;
2. widen humanitarian access to Iraqi children and their families in conflict zones, behind security barriers and in detention centres; and
3. strengthen Iraq’s capacity and initiatives to improve governance and mobilize its own resources to invest in national recovery.

“Iraqi children are the foundation for their country’s recovery,” said UNICEF spokesman Wright. “Where children’s lives are protected and revived, community recovery will swiftly follow. We continue to owe them our very best in 2008 and beyond.”

I agree. Now, in the spirit of the season, let's give the late, great, John Lennon the final word:

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"Worse than 1948"

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that Iraqis fleeing the war raging around them are running out of options as provinces within the country are refusing to allow internally displaced refugees entry, citing their lack of resources to adequately accommodate the refugees as a reason. With no end in sight to the turmoil and displacement, Andrew Harper, the head of the UNHCR Iraq Support Unit warned that Iraq was becoming “a pressure cooker.”

Now, nearing five years of warfare and invasion, the humanitarian crisis is coming to a head. Nearly 5 million people, in a population of 27 million, have fled the violence of George Bush’s vanity war.

Nearly 18% of the country has fled into diaspora


· Internally Displpaced.........1,225,000
· Syria..................................1,400,000
· Jordan..................................750,000
· Gulf states.............................200,000
· Egypt.................................... 100,000
· Iran.........................................54,000
· Lebanon..................................40,000
· Turkey.....................................10,000

"We are seeing an increasing number of governorates closing their borders or restricting entry to new arrivals," Mr. Harper said in an interview with the BBC. “And so we have a pressure cooker building up inside Iraq - there is no imminent end to the displacement." Governors from as many as 11 of 18 Iraqi provinces have been blocking internally displaced persons (IDPs) entry to their governed territory. If they do get in, they are routinely denied food and education. The local Iraqi authorities are simply overwhelmed and lack the resources to cope with the problems unleashed by the folly and hubris of the little idiot.

It is becoming increasingly more difficult for internally displaced Iraqis (at 2.25 million, there are as many IDPs as there are those who have been lucky enough to flee beyond the borders of Iraq). The possibility for fleeing Iraqis to find food, security and respite from war is increasingly more rare; and the few remaining areas where they can find refuge are intense and over populated.

The humanitarian crisis unfolding in Iraq is the most profound challenge facing the UNHCR and the international community. And a hundred thousand data points per month are added to the aggregate statistics.

The security situation is so dire in some areas that local aid workers have reported they are unable to reach thousands of families, including displaced refugees, due to security considerations.

Mr. Harper voices these concerns at a time when Iraq’s neighboring states have closed their borders to Iraqi refugees, claiming they are simply overwhelmed by the number of refugees they have already accepted, and they can no longer cope with the strain on their limited resources.

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It is long past the time for sobering assessments

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a cofounder of the House Out of Iraq Caucus, went on one of those dog-and-pony juggernauts to Iraq over the August recess. The outspoken anti-war liberal pledged to "listen and learn," and keep her own opinions to herself while there.

That proved a challenge at times. Like when Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told her "There's not going to be political reconciliation by this September; there's not going to be political reconciliation by next September." Or when General Petraeus told her that for a stable Iraq to emerge, it would require another decade of occupation.

But the military presentations left her stunned. Schakowsky said she jotted down Petraeus's words in a small white notebook she had brought along to record her impressions. Her neat, looping handwriting filled page after page, and she flipped through to find the Petraeus section. " 'We will be in Iraq in some way for nine to 10 years,' " Schakowsky read carefully. She had added her own translation: "Keep the train running for a few months, and then stretch it out. Just enough progress to justify more time."

"I felt that was a stretch and really part of a PR strategy -- just like the PR strategy that initially led up to the war in the first place," Schakowsky said. Petraeus, she said, "acknowledged that if the policymakers decide that we need to withdraw, that, you know, that's what he would have to do. But he felt that in order to win, we'd have to be there nine or 10 years."

Schakowsky got an advance screening of the sales pitch that will be hard-peddled in about three weeks time when Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus come to Washington to present the White House-written report on *progress* in Iraq.

Of course, by any metric you choose, the troop buildup is a failure. The express purpose of the exercise in futility and human sacrifice was to give the Iraqi government "breathing space" to achieve political progress. Instead, the government went ahead and stepped up it's disintegration, and calls for Maliki to be replaced are practically commonplace.

The humanitarian crisis is staggering. The number of internally displaced refugees, Iraqis forced from their homes but lacking the resources to flee the war-torn nation, is soaring. Syria and Jordan are overwhelmed. The only beneficiary of the refugee crisis is the Syrian sex trade.

Speaking of the humanitarian crisis created by aWol's vanity war, Petraeus was ready with the spin. "If you don't like the humanitarian crisis, the refugees and the internally displaced people, you can't draw down. If you are concerned about these people, the humanitarian crisis, you should be for our staying here." Schakowsky did not respond to Petraeus; instead she let it pass. "I was not arguing," she said. "I wanted to see what his take was."

Of course he is going to say that. But it's bullshit. The fact is, if the US were out of the way, the neighboring states that are directly affected by the refugees that strain their housing supply, schools and healthcare systems could be involved in helping what is left of Iraq achieve something resembling stability. But seriously - why the hell would Syria get involved when the troublemaker on the block refuses to talk to them, and has even made hostile threatening gestures in their direction?

Why in the name of all that is sacred and holy would we even consider a decade-long occupation of a hostile land when even those who support it admit that the solution is going to be political, not military? It is not at all like Germany, Japan or Korea. We are not occupiers in those nations, we are allies, and we are there at the invitation of the functioning, elected governments of those nations, and the citizens of those nations aren't trying to kill our G.I.'s.

It is time to bring on the diplomats. I don't care if it takes six months to decide on the style of chairs that will surround the peace table. Start fucking talking because this blowing shit up and having our Soldiers and Marines treating the residents of neighborhoods like common criminals is not cutting it, and can not be a successful strategy.

It is long past time to start dealing with reality, because reality certainly has no qualms or reservations about dealing with the young men and women who are thrown into the mix.

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The unseen tragedy in Iraq

The humanitarian crisis (.pdf) that many of us cautioned against before the American led invasion in March 2003 has come to pass.

It is to be expected, really, when two million people are internally displaced. Shanty towns are springing up in Iraq, now numbering in the scores.

Many displaced Iraqi’s, with nowhere to go and no one to turn to, are finding their way to various makeshift tent cities that are springing up from Ninevah in the north to Najaf in the south. These shanty towns lack even the basics – potable water, sanitation, proper shelter. Food is scarce and medial care is non-existent. In the Iraqi summer, these displaced people are dealing with 120 degree temperatures, in addition to the scorpions, snakes, mosquitoes and leishmaniasis-carrying sand flies. People with literally only the clothes on their backs are experiencing skin rashes and lesions in addition to the typhoid and diarrhea that are always endemic in such situations.

History tells us that such environs foster disease, crime, and militant demeanor.

Andrew Harper, head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Iraq Support unit is concerned. “What we do know is that Iraqis hate living in camps and the fact that we are now seeing these types of camps being established is a very bad sign that other options are no longer available.”

From Gulfnews.com

On Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it has launched an $85 million appeal for internally displaced Iraqis and those enduring food shortages.

"If people cannot get help with shelter, food, water, health care or even ways of earning a living to pay for these things because everyone is in a desperate struggle to survive, people will feel they have no choice but to flee Iraq. The situation cannot continue like this. We can and must help them," says Rafiq Tschannen, IOM's chief of mission in Iraq.

The Congress needs to address this burgeoning humanitarian crisis – the largest displacement in the Middle East since 1948. It is simply not possible to underestimate this catastrophe and the impact it will have on the internal security of neighboring countries, nor is it possible to underestimate the human suffering that is a direct result of George Bush’s splendid Iraqi adventure.

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