LAT: U.S. Priorities Set Back Its Healthcare Goals in Iraq

[DeepModem Mom]

U.S. Priorities Set Back Its Healthcare Goals in Iraq
By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer


BASRA, Iraq — Laura Bush's gift to the people of Iraq is rising in a dirt lot across from a sheep market here, hidden behind high concrete walls and towers with armed guards.

Behind the walls, hundreds of Iraqi workers in blue jumpsuits scurry around a construction site filled with rebar, dirt and trailers. The project, funded by the U.S. government and donations raised with the first lady's help, will someday be a hospital equipped to treat pediatric cancer patients.

But today, international health experts and Iraqi doctors say, it's an emblem of the problems with U.S. efforts to rebuild Iraq's shattered healthcare system.

Nobody denies that Iraq needs new hospitals, but the experts questioned the priorities of Washington's $1-billion rebuilding plan, which has focused on construction instead of basic needs such as better training for doctors and public healthcare campaigns....

***

Although reliable statistics are scarce, it does not appear that U.S. spending has markedly improved Iraq's bleak healthcare landscape....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraqhealth30oct30,0,6018160.story?coll=la-home-world

[Benhurst]

1. We inundate Iraq with depleted uranium, then build them a

hospital equipped to treat pediatric cancer patients.


Gosh, thanks, Laura, you stupid, heartless bitch!

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LynnTheDem]

3. It's spelled M-O-R-A-N.

Heh.

[cassiepriam]

4. Best healthcare goal: stop killing, maiming, torturing the children.