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Originally Posted by Undertoad
h_p, you have completely left out the effects that Saddam had on his country's prosperity... which was to approximately cut it to a tenth of what it had been, while building palaces and control for himself. This led to hundreds of thousands of deaths too.
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UT forgets to mention deaths due to missing basic services. Services that were always available under Saddam and are no longer available. For example, I don't remember which is the so many recent reports I have read (UT's study or a BBC report or one of the others). But bottom line remains. All reports not from the George Jr administration say things have gotten worse. Iraqis once had a sewage system. Much of that same system no longer functions.
The number of Iraqi civilian deaths (not including those who died in the war) was recently estimated at something around 10,000+ civilians. Furthermore, the number of civilian deaths per day has been slowly increasing. Security is so non-existant that the George Jr administration has rechanneled much of the $18billion from reconstruction into training security forces. Might as well. Most Iraqi reconstruction is all but halted due to massive insecurity.
Lack of security in Iraq is so widespread now that it is not even newsworthy. But I recall Dexter Filkins comments after coming from an interview with a Sunni cleric very opposed to Americans. He expects Sahr City (a Shi'ite stronghold) to soon join other cities as all but abandoned by American forces. Cities no longer in occupation force control according to The Economist include Samarra, Fallujah, Latifya, Kufa, Najaf, and Majar al-Kabir. For example, insurgents so fully dominate the southern city of Majar al-Kabir that weapons trade is conducted openly in large open air markets. Latifya is the town just south of Baghdad were so many contractors, a group of American soldiers, and even the son of a lady member of the Provisional government were killed in routine ambushes. These are no-go cites - completely out of occupation forces control. Far more are basically in and out of rebel control. Even tribal leaders have taken over some cities.
One would think that by avoiding these no-go cities, then America death rates were lower. 55 dead Americans this month - highest since April.
In the meantime, UN Secretary General Kofi Anan repeated what everyone really knew. The US invasion of Iraq - a Pearl Harbor type of attack - was illegal. So the George Jr administration says the UN Secretary General is lying? At what point do we acknowledge this president is says same as Nixon said about VietNam just before his landslide relection victory. History repeats when the people fail to learn it.
The Economist also says this about Iraqi education:
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The Economist on 11 September 2004
Some Iraqi students are struggling to hoist the banner of democracy. But their curriculums are out of date, they have little access to the outside world, they increasingly resent America, and more of them are prey to religious groups on campus which tell girls to cover their heads and which break up romances.
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Where are the facts that support the George Jr claims of Iraq is getting better? Nixon would constantly claim the same thing. The famous expression was "Light at the end of the Tunnel".