Iraq in throes of environmental catastrophe, experts say

[RamboLiberal]

Source: LA Times

Reporting from Baghdad -- You wake up in the morning to find your nostrils clogged. Houses and trees have vanished beneath a choking brown smog. A hot wind blasts fine particles through doors and windows, coating everything in sight and imparting an eerie orange glow.

Dust storms are a routine experience in Iraq, but lately they've become a whole lot more common.

"Now it seems we have dust storms nearly every day," said Raed Hussein, 31, an antiques dealer who had to rush his 5-year-old son to a hospital during a recent squall because the boy couldn't breathe. "We suffer from lack of electricity, we suffer from explosions, and now we are suffering even more because of this terrible dust.

"It must be a punishment from God," he added, offering a view widely held among Iraqis seeking to explain their apocalyptic weather of late. "I think God is angry with the deeds of the Iraqi people."

The reality is probably scarier. Iraq is in the throes of what some officials are calling an environmental catastrophe, and the increased frequency of dust storms is only the most visible manifestation.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-dust30-2009jul30,0,3137832.story

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Shock & Awe, baby. That's our Repulicon Crusader Way." - xCommander AWOL

[saigon68]

7. "BRING EM ON" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[XemaSab]

2. The next great Middle-Eastern war will be over water

The Turks have cut the flow into Iraq by 1/2.

[Downwinder]

4. Brings up an interesting situation.

Geneva Conventions require that an Occupying power maintain the resources of the occupied territory. So it can be interpreted that the US is responsible for restoring that water. This "tar baby" is going to go on for a long time.

[XemaSab]

8. I don't think the US has a lot of control over the situation

Turkey, Syria, and Iran are the responsible parties, according to the article.

[Downwinder]

3. We've destroyed the birthplace of civilization,

now we are working at destroying civilization itself.

[madrchsod]

5. don`t blame god raed.....

blame saddam for his war with iran and then bush,clinton, bush,and obama for the plight of your people.

[truedelphi]

6. Our troops routinely defoliated Iraq. The lovely little oases

That surrounded many communities were considered threatening - where better for a sniper to hide than beneath and behind the date trees?

So those were bulldozed away. Also, in depriving the Iraqis of their trees, it makes it easier for the GMO's from Monsanto to take over as replacement seeds and foods. (In fact those GMO's are mandated as being the only seeds now available for Iraqis to plant!)

[winyanstaz]

9. When you bomb a nation into rubble....

you should expect a lot of dust.
We need to get out of there now..and give the iraq people the money and resources to restore their own nation. To hell with these contractors who have done nothing but line their pockets.

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. "Mission Accomplished" - indeed

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(sigh)